Blood Red Sandman
by The Silent Scream
Summary: A gruesome present adressed to Jane arrives at the precinct just after Maura and she finally gave in to their mutual attraction. Soon, they realize that this time, they're not after an ordinary killer, but someone with their own agenda... Jane / Maura
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: Apparently, my muse likes Rizzoli & Isles better than the fic I usually write, since she coughs up ideas for those two lovely ladies, but not for the rest. Oh well. This story starts right the next morning after my previous one _Slap some Sense into Me_, but will be (hopefully) much longer and actually has more of a storyline than my first fic. I hope you'll enjoy :) Fair warning to the faint of heart, this story will include several quite graphic images and foul language. Feedback is highly appreciated.

Disclaimer: Rizzoli & Isles are not my property, just borrowing them for a while from their rightful owners TNT and Tess Gerritsen, I promise I'll give 'em back and I'll make no money with 'em.

Keeping up the show's tradition of naming the episodes after songs, I borrowed Lordi's _Blood Red Sandman_ for this fic, if you're into hard rock / metal, you should definitely check it out.

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><p><span>Blood Red Sandman<span>

If there is one noise I hate more than anything in the whole world, it's the sound of my phone ringing while I'm still asleep. Or, better said, the sound of my phone waking me up. I can't help but let out a little grunt as the totally inappropriately cheerful ringtone echoes through the room, accompanied by the vibrating sounds the phone makes against the wooden surface of the nightstand.

Grunting again, I roll over while I open my eyes – just in time to see the mass of caramel-coloured hair before it's in my face. Don't get me wrong, I love Maura's hair, well I love everything about her, her Googlemouth maybe not always, but usually I do, but, well, getting her hair into my face like that right after waking up… Let's just say it's not the best thing to feel.

"Are you trying to eat my hair?" she wants to know while I get my face out of the tangled mess – talk about bad bed-head, but it was well earned. The only answer she gets is another grunt, but she knows by now that I'm not much of a morning person, so this doesn't stop her from going on while I finally manage to reach over her and grab my phone from her nightstand.

"You shouldn't try to eat hair", Maura lectures me while I look at the display and see it's Frost calling me, "it's indigestible. Cats are capable of vomiting it back up easily, but it's different for humans."

"I wasn't eating your hair", I tell her, rolling my eyes, why would I do that anyway? "My phone's ringing and I had to grab it. See?"

"I hear it", she corrects me while I finally take the call and hold the phone to my ear, greeting Frost with quite the impolite "What?", but, well, it's early in the morning, he won't expect me to be all too formal with him.

"I woke you up, didn't I", he replies, and there's something in his voice that makes me just a tiny bit uneasy, even though I'm not sure what it is and why I react that way.

"Yes, you did", I let him know, "so this better be good. What is it?"

"You should come to the precinct", is his not very informative answer, "as fast as possible."

"What is it?" I repeat, I wanna know what I should be prepared for after all, "another homicide? God, can't these people go one night without killing each other?"

"Can you just come here?" Frost replies, okay, this is getting weird, normally, he's not so tight-lipped.

"Okay, fine, I'll come", I let him know, I can pester him more about what exactly is going on once I'm there. "Should I bring… coffee?" I manage to stop myself in the last second from asking if I should bring Maura, after all, he doesn't know I spent the night – not that it would be surprising, we've done this quite often before yesterday and the… special events, but still, no need to rub his face in it. Urgh, bad choice of words there, Jane.

"No, just bring yourself", he mumbles, "I'll call Dr. Isles in the meantime, alright?"

"…alright", I agree after yet another moment of hesitation, wondering if he noticed; if he did, he doesn't let it show, since he simply says his Goodbye and hangs up, making me do the same before I turn to look at the woman next to me.

I'd been planning to tell her that her phone will ring any moment now, but the words are forgotten the moment my gaze lands on her, and for what feels like the hundredth time, I ask myself if all of this really happened or if I'm having some sort of elaborate dream, maybe I'm in a coma or something.

"Barry's gonna call you any minute now", I finally manage to say something; in response, Maura briefly looks at her phone, then shrugs and sits up as well, scooting closer to me so she can wrap her arms around me from behind. Okay, definitely not dreaming this, nothing ever felt as good as this in any dream I've ever had, and God knows I've had plenty of dreams about Maura. Ahem.

"Another murder?" she wants to know, scrunching up her nose adorably, "already? We just solved one yesterday."

"I have no idea", I have to admit, "he wasn't all too talkative. Maybe he'll tell you more, to me, he just said I should come to the precinct."

She just shrugs, looks at her phone again, then back at me, with the sparkle in her eyes I've seen quite often during last night. "You didn't kiss me good morning yet", she reprimands, with a smile though so I won't end up offended; of course I can't let that happen, and I gladly kiss her, more than gladly to be honest, I think I'll never get enough of kissing her. Wow, normally, I'm not such a sentimental sap, but clearly, Maura brings out that side of me. Not sure if this is good or bad…

"Better", she tells me after the kiss, and just then, her phone rings at last, and I briefly wonder what took Frost so long while she pulls back from me and gets her phone, her answer much more polite than mine: "Isles? …good morning Barry. … Yes of course. … Yes I will be there as fast as possible. Goodbye." She hangs up again and puts the phone back on the nightstand, then moves closer to me for yet another kiss – hooray! – before she gets out of bed and moves to her cupboard and opens it.

"Should we tell the others?" she asks while looking at her clothing, and for a moment, I'm not sure what she means, then it hits me – she's talking about "us", whatever "we" are, we didn't really clarify that the night before. There wasn't much talking at all the night before I have to admit, except for the occasional "Oh, God", "Oh, Jane" and "Oh, Maura".

"What do you mean?" I play it dumb anyway, and she gives me that look that shows she _knows_ I'm playing dumb, but is willing to go along, either for her own amusement or to gently guide me towards the answer she wants.

"About us", she clarifies, then turns to her wardrobe again, man, how can one person have so many clothes, and goes on, idly repeating what she already said the night before, right after I kissed her for the second time, up against the kitchen counter. "I don't think anyone would be very surprised. After all, we've already been dating in everything but name."

"Except we didn't kiss and do what we did last night", I remind her of that little, but not unimportant fact, "so they might be surprised after all. Or start having dirty fantasies. I do not want to be in the room when this happens."

"Jane", Maura chastises me as, finally settling on an outfit and putting it on the bed, to be put on after her morning hygiene routine, "Vince and Barry are your friends, they won't have dirty fantasies about you or me, or the two of us together."

"They are men, of course they will", I argue back, "not to mention all the other guys at the precinct."

"Well, you know I can't lie", Maura says while she finally turns to look at me again, and I decide to ignore the little fact that not too long ago, she actually did what she now claims she can't do, "so if any of them asks me, I'll have to be honest. Of course, we could just keep going without saying anything. See if they'll catch on." Her eyes sparkle at the last words, and I get the suspicion that this is some sort of game she wants to play with the guys, but fine, if she's up to it, it's better than going there and announcing that we're… well, what are we actually? An item? A couple? I ask her just that, and she shrugs, sitting down on the bed next to me and looking at me sincerely.

"We don't have to put a label on this", she tells me, sounding as sincere as she's looking, "labelling it is something I'm not requiring. There is one thing I do require though…"

"And what would that be?" I ask, smiling when she moved even closer to me and makes it possible for me to put my arms around her; she lowers her voice when she replies, and the tone sends shivers up and down my spine. "That this is not a one-time-thing, Jane."

"It's not", I tell her at once, making her smile as well, "not if it's up to me."

"That's settled, then", Maura says, and we kiss once more – just a short innocent peck this time – before she finally vanishes into the next door bathroom to get done while I take the time to stretch once more, then get out of bed and start collecting my clothes, now asking myself what is going on and why Frost wouldn't tell me anything over the phone, something he's never done before.

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><p>At the precinct, no one even looks twice when Maura and I arrive together, even though a few eyebrows rise at the fact that I'm wearing the same outfit as the day before; no one bothers – or maybe, dares – to ask about it though, after all, that's not happening for the first time, either.<p>

We head to the bullpen together and find Frost and Korsak there, along with Cavanaugh, standing at Korsak's desk with their backs towards us and looking at something their bodies are shielding; when I call out to them, they all turn their heads and spot us, and I can tell immediately that Frost puked not all too long ago. Maybe that's why it took him so long to call Maura. One should think he got used to those sides of the job by now, he's been doing it long enough.

"What's going on?" I wanna know while I stride over to the desk, Maura close behind me, "Frost wouldn't tell me anything."

"See for yourself", Cavanaugh is the one to answer that and steps aside so I can see what's on the desk; it's a cardboard box, big enough to fit a ball into it, and the sticker on the side of it has my name on it. Someone sent me a present.

Now my curiosity knows no boundaries, and I even sped up a bit as I move up to the desk and peer into the box, Maura still right behind me, then next to me, and I hear her gasp when she sees what's inside, her hand automatically finding mine and grasping it. I have to admit that, despite years of working in homicide, I'm taken aback too; I've received presents to the precinct a few times already, by Jorge and other guys trying to impress me, but it's quite obvious that this was not send here to woo me.

The head's been cut from the body at the neck, dried blood on the skin and matting the light brown hair; the eyes are open, but rolled back so far that I can only see their whites and not which colour they have, and the tongue sticks out slightly between the blue-ish lips, looking dried out and shrivelled. And, as if to make this even more obscure than it already is, someone has tied a bow around the head, a red one.

"What the Hell", I finally manage to say something, looking away from the gruesome sight and up at Cavanaugh, then at Korsak when he just shrugs, feeling dismay when my former partner just mimics the gesture.

"It was sent here this morning, regular mail", Frost tells me, sounding as if he might throw up again any moment, even though he's turned away from the box by now. "You know the procedure about closed packages going to cops, so they ran the usual check-ups on it and found this inside."

"And that's all?" I want to know, only now realizing that Maura is still grasping my hand, but I don't really care if anyone notices, so I don't let go, even give her a reassuring squeeze, "no card or anything?"

"Nothing", Korsak shakes his head, "just that head, addressed to you."

"This could be a threat", Maura speaks up for the first time since she saw the gruesome content of the package, and even though I don't like it, I have to agree. Unable to help it, I have to look at the head again, study the pale face and the dead eyes; the man seems vaguely familiar, but I'm not sure if that's for real or if I'm just imagining it. At least it's nobody I know.

"I'll take this to the morgue with me", Maura decides, already moving to pick up the package, I figure they already checked it for prints before taking it up here once they'd discovered what's inside, so I don't stop her, "it's not much to work with, but…" She falls silent and cringes at her own words; Frost looks decidedly greener, but Cavanaugh decides to ignore the bad choice of words his top M.E. just made and merely nods, then tells her to let him know the moment she found anything, no matter what.

"You try to find anything on this guy in the meantime", he then turns to me, "compare to the pictures we have in the database. Maybe something will come up." I make some agreeing noise, I'd rather go downstairs into the morgue with Maura, but I know that the job's more important right now, so I throw one last dismayed glance at the box before Maura vanishes downstairs with it, then I look at Frost and Korsak and, trying to sound as if I'm not freaked out at all, tell them that we should get started, making both of them nod, and I don't miss the uneasy glance they exchange just before they get going. Good to know I'm not the only one uneasy about this.


	2. Chapter 2

Two hours later, my eyes are burning and I can feel a headache coming on, great, just what I need right now, and to top it off, that has been the only result of our search. I never realized that there are so many pictures in our database, and the fact that death tends to change the features, make them slacken and hang, didn't make the search easier, either.

"I need a break", I announce, pushing my chair back and making both Frost and Korsak look up from their monitors; Vince looks just as tired out as I feel, but Barry seems a bit more at ease, now that he has been able to focus on the search and didn't need to look at the severed head anymore.

"I'll go see if Maura found anything out by now", I add, checking my cell phone afterwards; so far, she didn't call or text me, which is odd, but I'll know in a few minutes how far her work with the head progressed by now.

"Come back then and tell us what she said", Korsak answers, and I nod before I finally hurry off and to the elevators, keeping myself from shuffling around while I wait for it to come up here, man, I hope there won't be too many people down there, I doubt I'll be able to keep my hands away from her. Jeez, I'm acting like a crushing teenager, but what can I do?

Luckily, someone listened to my prayers and Maura's alone in the morgue when I enter; she stands at one of the tables, studying the severed head, the thing lies on the table face up and she's focused on the neck area. I'm glad that Frost didn't come down here with me, or he surely would have puked again – even for me, it's quite the gruesome sight, with the tendons and muscles hanging out of the cut and the bit of spine I can see among the ruined flesh.

Upon hearing me approach, Maura looks up, and her eyes light up; the sight alone is enough to warm up my heart, and the smile she gives me moments later only helps with that and, in addition, makes it beat faster, too.

"I was just about to call you", she tells me while I move over to the table and stand beside her, moving one hand to put it on her back without even thinking about it while I look at the head again, shaking mine when she asks if we know by now who he is.

"Frost and Korsak will keep looking", I then let her know, "but it's hard, we've got too many photos in our database."

"And maybe he's not even in there", she finds it necessary to point out, not exactly a helpful comment, even though I know she's right, "if it was meant as a threat against you, it might be some innocent person."

I don't like that thought, but I know she could be right, and so I nod, unable to hold back a sigh afterwards.

"I hope not", I then tell her, "it's bad enough that someone's after my head, or other parts of my body, but killing random innocent bystanders for his sick little message…"

Maura nods her agreement, then her tone grows business-like when I ask her what she's got and she starts explaining, starting with the cut that was made to separate the head from the body.

"We're dealing with a strong perpetrator", she lets me know, "see how torn and ragged the tendons and muscles are where they were cut? The cut was made with something with a jagged edge, like a bread knife or a saw."

That makes me grimace as I imagine some man with a blank where his face should be cutting off that poor guy's head with a regular handsaw; I can't imagine how much strength would be needed for that, and how much determination.

"And it couldn't have been a buzzsaw?" I want to know, not surprised when she shakes her head at once.

"The uneven incisions suggest the movement that comes with using a regular saw, or something with a similarly jagged edge", she then explains, pointing out the uneven cuts; I know that she knows what she's talking about, so I just nod, then ask her if she could figure out how long the guy's been dead already.

"The degree of decomposition of the tissue puts the time of death to five to seven days", she lets me know in reply, I know I don't have to ask if she can guess if it were five, six or seven days, she won't do it and it's not really necessary anyway. My answer to that is to get out my phone and text Frost, instructing him to get the list of persons who had been reported missing during the last eight days and cross-check the pictures with the one we took from our head; his reply is a quick and short "Yes", and I tuck my phone away again and return my attention to Maura.

"I guess you can't tell me how he died, right", I ask her, halfway teasing her, halfway serious, I know it's impossible to tell with just the head, unless he was bludgeoned to death with repeated blows right there.

"I can't tell", Maura immediately let's me know, "not without the body present, as well."

"No wounds at the head?" I want to know, and she shakes her head, carefully taking hold of the head and turning it around as if it's on display, so I can see that, even though there's blood in the hair, it's unharmed.

"How did the blood get into the hair? Splashed up there when it was cut off?" I ponder out loud, and the look she gives me already tells me what she'll say next before she speaks up. "I don't know, Jane. Making any assumptions about how the blood came into contact with the hair would be guessing, and…"

"I know", I interrupt her, "you don't guess. But at least you called it blood and not reddish-brown substance."

"That's because I already determined it's blood", she says, with that playful little smirk that always sends my heart rate through the roof, and for a moment, I have to fight down the urge to grab and kiss her – even though we are alone in the morgue, someone might come in any moment after all.

"I had a sample sent to the lab", she adds, "for determination of blood type and any substances which might be in his bloodstream."

"You can do that with dried blood?" I want to know, surprised – until now, I always thought that could only be done with the fresh stuff.

"No, of course not", Maura shakes her head, "there… was some left. Inside."

"Oh", I smartly reply, my gaze automatically drifting back to the head; he holds my gaze with his rolled-back eyes, and after a few seconds, I look away again, not able to keep myself from shuddering.

My phone buzzes again in my pocket and I quickly get it out; it's a text from Frost, and the few words make my eyes briefly go wide before I look at Maura and tell her that they found something and that I have to go upstairs. She just nods her agreement, then surprises the Hell out of me by looking around to make sure no one's there – before she suddenly stands on the tips of her toes and gives me a quick kiss, her smile full of mischief when she pulls back a few wonderful – but too short, I have to admit – seconds later.

"I know we agreed on acting as always", she tells me before I can say anything, "but this opportunity couldn't be wasted."

"Agreed", I smirk, and God knows I want to push my luck and kiss her again, properly this time, not just a brief, lips-on-lips-only thing; I also know though that, if I do that, we'll both probably get so engrossed in what we're doing that we wouldn't hear anyone enter, and so I just smile at her before I finally leave and hurry back upstairs, now eager to see what Frost found.

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><p>"He's not listed as missing", Frost tells me the moment I step up to him, "but Korsak got a hit in one of our databases, looks pretty much like him, what do you say?" With those words, he gestures at the pictures on the computer, and I compare them to the printout of the photo we took of the head; it's hard to be one hundred percent sure, but enough to convince me that it's our guy.<p>

"Brandon Sullivan", I read out loud, the name faintly rings a bell in the back of my mind, just like the fact that he looked vaguely familiar when I saw the head for the first time.

"That name mean anything to you?" Frost wants to know, looking at me curiously; I shrug, not even returning his look, keeping my gaze focused on the computer screen.

"Not sure", I mutter, more to myself than at him, "I think I've heard it before…" Since Frost is right-handed, the mouse is on the wrong side of the monitor for me, but I try to ignore that when I take hold of it and start scrolling down, frowning to myself as I read the information in the record.

"He was on trial", I finally stumble upon something interesting, "for murder. We had him here for questioning and arrested him, but he was found not guilty…"

"Was it your case?" Frost wants to know, and I check before I nod, suddenly having the feeling that the head wasn't meant as a threat after all, even though I'm not sure why.

"I remember now", I grumble, the old anger I felt back then when the jury decided to let that scumbag go free flashing up again. "They acquitted him because the evidence wasn't enough for them, even though we all knew he did it."

"Maybe someone related to the victim", Frost hazards, now looking at the screen as well, "revenge?"

"Might be", I agree, "the victim was his girl at the time he killed her, maybe her parents or… I think she had a brother…"

"I'll get their information and contact them for questioning", Frost decides, it's grasping at straws, but better than just sitting around and doing nothing, "did he have any family we have to notify?"

"According to what it says here, no", I let him know after another look, "the parents are dead, no siblings. Could be he found another girl though since the acquittal, that was…" here I have to interrupt myself to check again, the result only increasing my hunch that sending this head to me was no threat, "…exactly one year ago."

That makes Frost and me exchange another look, since it seems like too much of a coincidence – a murderer was let off the hook, and on exactly the same day one year ago, his head is sent to the detective who'd been on the case back then.

"I think someone tried to make you a present with that guy's death", Frost finally says out loud what I've been thinking.

"Yeah", I retort, "hence the pretty red bow. Did they check that for fingerprints, by the way?" I'm not surprised when he nods and tells me that they found nothing; someone who'd go through the trouble of finding out who had been on that case, then track Sullivan down to kill him and mail his head to me surely wouldn't be stupid enough to leave his prints anywhere.

"Get the parents and the brother", I instruct Frost, "I want them in here for questioning as fast as possible." He nods and hurries off to do just that while I return to my desk and sit down there; for a while, I look at the monitor, my fingers resting on the keyboard without moving as my mind picks up speed and starts working.

I know it's entirely possible that the relatives of the victim are responsible for Sullivan's death, but why wait one year? As some sort of macabre anniversary, a dark celebration of the day justice didn't work out for them and their girl? Shaking my head to clear it, I tell myself that I'll know as soon as Frost got their contact data and they came here, and I push the thoughts about Sullivan and his death aside so I can focus on the paperwork I still have to do, even though the feeling that we're on the wrong track remains in my gut and just won't leave, no matter how hard I try to make it go away.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: As of tomorrow, I'm off to a summer cabin to spend four days of eating, drinking and loud music with a bunch of friends, so the next update will probably be posted on Sunday evening. I hope you're enjoying the story so far :)

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><p>Frost manages to get hold of the girl's parents, and they come to the precinct for a little talk, as he puts it; the brother apparently moved to the other side of the country, and while Frost and I have that talk with the victim's parents, Korsak checks about the brother and if he's got an alibi.<p>

"I'm very sorry that we have to bring back those painful memories", I tell the parents of the poor girl, and the father shrugs in reply, sounding as if he's just been woken up when he answers. "You're not bringing anything back, they're always around. Why did you want us to come here? Did that bastard kill someone else and you'll manage to get him behind bars this time?"

"He's dead", Frost is the one to answer that, making them both look at him; while he goes on, of course not giving them any details, I study them both, the scrawny arms of the elder man and the plump figure of his wife.

"He was killed about a week ago", my partner now tells them, "and due to your emotional involvement in the case, I'm afraid I'll have to ask you…"

"… for alibis?" the wife interrupts, sounding a bit enraged, "you think we killed him?"

"We don't think anything", I try to calm her down, "but surely you'll understand that, whenever something like this happens, the relatives of the murdered person's victim are the first we look to."

"Of course", the father gives back, grasping his wife's hand and giving her a calming look, "we understand. We'd be happy to provide that information."

"Great", I smile at him, "Detective Frost here will take your statements then. If you'll excuse me…" They both nod, and I get up and leave the small room; of course Frost has to take their information, but I already know it's pointless – even if they both don't have watertight alibis, my gut just tells me that it wasn't them, not to mention that neither of them looks strong enough to saw off someone's head, and Maura confirmed that this would take a lot of strength.

As if thinking of her set something off, my phone buzzes and it's a text from her; it just tells me that the results came in from the lab, wow that was quick, but nothing else, so I'll have to go down there into the morgue and see what she'll tell me. Oh, what a pity. I tell Korsak where I am and he nods, not looking all too surprised; then I hurry to the elevator to join Maura in the morgue, curious what she'll have for me.

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><p>"His blood type is B negative", Maura lets me know the moment I stepped inside and moved up to her and almost automatically put one hand on her back, "and according to the tests the lab ran, there was a strong sedative in his bloodstream when he was killed."<p>

"To keep him quiet, or even knocked out", I ponder out loud, Maura doesn't even dignify my guessing with an answer this time, but just gives me that certain look; I shrug at her, then look at the head again, asking myself who could be responsible if the parents didn't do it.

"B negative's quite rare, isn't it?" I ask, not because it really interests me, but because I want to get my mind away from the possible meanings of this gruesome present.

"It is indeed", Maura confirms, "only two percent of the American population have this blood type. Only AB negative is rarer, with a spreading of just one percent. Did you know that in Japan, a lot of importance is put on the blood type and it is often one of the first things asked when meeting new people? There are even dating services matching the customers according to their blood type. Of course, it's a bogus science."

"Of course", I deadpan, holding back the urge to roll my eyes – really, I love her, but her tendency to act as some sort of Wikipedia on two legs can get a tad… well, not annoying, but, let's say straining, at times. Then, I realize that I didn't tell Maura what we found out so far, and I do just that, and she gets that cute little surprised look on her face.

"This is interesting", she then says, "what do you think it means?"

"Are you trying to make me guess?" I tease her, and she just gives me that smile again and shrugs, then waits for me to answer – after all, she knows that unlike her, I don't mind guessing.

"Well", I thus say, "our first guess of course were the relatives of the victim, but the brother moved to the other side of the country – Korsak's checking him out right now – and the parents came here to be interviewed, but my gut tells me they didn't do it. Not to mention how scrawny and old the victim's father is and his wife doesn't look like she could saw off a head, either."

"It would need a lot of strength, yes", Maura agrees, looking at the severed head again, "but at least you know now he didn't fight back. That was impossible, with the high amount of tranquilizer still present in his bloodstream, he either was unconscious at the moment of death or delirious."

"Could that have been what killed him?" I want to know, and she immediately shakes her head, and I'm glad that I didn't accidentally make her guess again.

"The dosage must have been high, but it wasn't that high", she then lets me know, and I just nod, after all, she knows what she's talking about.

"I wonder if the rest of him will turn up", I then mutter, now looking at the head again while I, without even thinking about it for more than the blink of an eye, put one hand on Maura's back, suddenly keen on having some sort of contact, "or if that's all we'll get from Mr Sullivan."

"I can't answer that", Maura says, "because I would have to guess to do so."

"I know, I know", I grumble, rolling my eyes, but she knows it's just good natured ribbing and just smiles, and then Frost suddenly walks in and forces me to quickly pull back my hand. I wonder if he noticed, but hey, even if he did, Maura and I've been touching each other all the time even before our… whatever it is started.

"Done with the parents?" I want to know, and he nods and shows me the notes he took while they gave their statements, but all I can see are swirls and scrabbles, man, he really has awful handwriting.

"I can't read that", I tell him, and he rolls his eyes and takes the notes back to tell me what they say.

"They got everything", he lets me know, not really surprising me, "receipts to prove where they've been out eating, to the theatre and what not, and witnesses who were there with them. Of course they didn't have people around the whole few days we need to get covered, but I don't think it's them."

"Me neither", I agree, he's not surprising me with that statement, either, and next to me, Maura smirks and scolds us both for making such assumptions.

"That's part of being a detective", I tell her, smirking as well, "sometimes you gotta listen to your gut."

"Technically, you can't listen to your gut because the only noises it makes are blubbering and gulping sounds", Maura let's us both know, "caused by the processes which are constantly going on."

"You know that wasn't meant literally", I grumble at her while Frost just smirks beside me; then, he tells me that he'll go and look into Sullivan's background, try to find out if he maybe had any enemies, even though it doesn't make much sense that one of them would send his head to me after killing him.

"You do that", I tell him anyway, then ask Maura if she's up for going for lunch; she nods at once, and I tell Frost to call me, should he find anything before we get back. He nods his agreement, then leaves the morgue; the moment the door falls close behind him, Maura looks at me, sounding a bit curious when she speaks up. "Why did you pull away when he came in? I don't think he even would have noticed, we touch each other all the time."

"That's what I realized too a second after I pulled back", I admit, "but it would have looked even weirder if I'd put my hand back, no? Then he surely would have noticed."

"You shouldn't think about this so much", she tells me as an answer while she takes off her gloves and the scrub, "do you really think they would care if they'd notice something?"

"No, I don't", I reassure her, "but…" I trail off, not sure how to go on, and the look she gives me now is worried, her hand warm and soft when she puts it on my forearm.

"But what?" she tries to coax an answer out of me, and I let out a heavy sigh and shrug, then give her a lopsided smile, still not sure how to explain.

"Well", I start anyway, "you know how the guys are, not Frost and Korsak, those two don't do that, at least not to my face and surely also not behind my back, but the rest…"

"They can be quite rude, yes", Maura agrees, scrunching up her nose in that cute way again, "but even if they'd find out, they'd probably just tease you for a day or two and then find something or someone new. Remember the last time Vince got married and how much they teased him about it? It lasted for two days and then Cavanaugh spilled coffee on himself and they had a new topic."

"Yes", I agree, part of me knowing that she's right, but another, unfortunately bigger part is still not so convinced, "but this isn't something like Korsak's third marriage or spilled coffee. I think it'd be… a bigger deal for them."

"So they'd tease for a week or so", Maura shrugs, clearly not all too disturbed by the thought, "and it's not like they'd come up with anything new, don't you think? They've made assumptions about the state of our relationship before."

"Oh yes, they did", I can't help but grimace, after all, some of the guys chose quite rude words when they "made assumptions", as Maura put it, until Cavanaugh happened to walk in on them and told them to cut it out, "and once they find out we… have something… going on, they'll do just that again, and in great detail, I bet."

"Let them", she shrugs, and it's kinda amazing how easily she seems to handle all that, "or just use your wit and sarcasm to get back at them. You've done it before. Now, let's go and have lunch?"

"Sure", I say, and we leave the morgue together, passing the lab on our way to the elevator, the people there keeping me from taking her hand – even if we did touch a lot already before this… thing started, holding hands wasn't part of the repertoire and would surely overdo it. Man, not putting any label on this… thing is harder as I thought, at least when it comes to talking and thinking about it.

"What do you want to eat?" Maura distracts me from my thoughts about possibly labelling of what we have after all, "I suggest something light, it might be a long day again and heavy food would make you tired."

"Let's just go and get a salad somewhere", I suggest, knowing she's right about heavy food and a possible long day; she smiles up at me, making my knees go all jelly-like, man, I feel like a teenager again, and nods, then pushes the button which calls down the elevator.

While we wait for the doors to open, Maura strangely keeps looking down the hallway, as if she's waiting for someone; nobody appears though, and it's just us in the cabin when the elevator's finally there.

"What was that about", I wanna know after the doors closed behind us, and she gives me that cute little smile again – before she suddenly grabs the front of my shirt and pulls me down and kisses me, and not just a little innocent peck this time, either.

"Wow", is all I can say when she pulls back just in time before the elevator reaches the ground floor and the doors open; she just smiles at me again and steps outside, and after a second, I follow her, still feeling a bit dazed. Man, I never would have thought she'd be the type to do that, and without warning, too. I wonder what other surprising things I'll find out about her while this… thing goes on.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Note: Managed to get back from the summer cottage in one piece (albeit with puppy dog puke on my pants, they surely don't like to drive) and without any dramas playing out there, so here's the update I promised :) Enjoy! :)

* * *

><p>For the rest of the day, we unfortunately don't find out anything which could help us with the case; the brother's alibi is not just watertight, but bulletproof, and we all agree that the parents aren't our prime suspects, either. Maura got done with the examination of the head – as she said, it wasn't much to work with, anyway – and the little information she could get from it wasn't all too enlightening either; I hate those moments, the times when it seems hopeless and we're all just pottering about, totally clueless, not having an idea how to solve this.<p>

"Are you coming to my home with me?" Maura wants to know as we leave the precinct together, done for the day, even though I know I won't be able to stop thinking about the case, "Angela is making dinner again and asked me to bring you along. Not to mention that I'd love having you there." She smiles at me, and how could I say no? I think I'll never be able to tell her no, no matter what she'll ask from me. Well, maybe if she'd ask me to kill someone, but other than that…

"Sure", I thus tell her, "but I'll have to drop by my place first and change my clothes. Ma was too busy being shocked about Tommy to notice we traded clothes yesterday – still can't believe she didn't notice, by the way – but she'll notice if I wear the same suit again."

"Yes, your mother can be quite observant about clothing", Maura agrees, "I'll come with you then, if you don't mind?"

"Of course I don't", I reassure her, why would I, then I smirk at her as something else comes to my mind, "not that you have much of a choice, we drove here together today. In my car."

"Oh, that's true", Maura realizes, "but that was a good thing to do, car sharing helps to reduce the output of CO2 and thus helps to fight global warming."

"Yeah, that, and you said you weren't up to driving after last night's activities", I remind her, of course she used much more words to tell me that, but I don't want to quote her googlemouthing back at her.

"Indeed I wasn't", Maura smiles, her eyes sparkling, "but I like driving with you. Even though you sometimes don't keep the speed limit in mind, you're a secure and good driver."

"Thanks", I smirk while we finally get to my car and I dig out my car keys; it takes a while until there's a gap in traffic so I can drive out of the parking lot, and when I finally did and am on the road, Maura suddenly reaches over with one hand and puts it on my upper leg, smiling at me innocently when I briefly glance at her.

"Are you trying to make me less secure of a driver now?" I teasingly ask, keeping my eyes on the road now; she lets out this cute little giggle as an answer, then shakes her head, sounding as innocent as she looked before when she answers. "Of course not, but the need for close contact is natural for… people in our situation, and I'm giving in to it, or it would cause me discomfort."

"And we don't want that", I reassure her, mentally going through what she said again and how she paused before she said "people in our situation", and I can't help but wonder if she actually wanted to say "partners" or maybe even "lovers". Man, this no labelling thing was supposed to make things easier, but seems she's having the same troubles with it I'm having.

"If the touch is too distracting for you though, of course I can wait until we are out of the car", Maura now goes on, once more distracting me from my thoughts, "I wouldn't want to cause a distraction and maybe make you get involved in a fender banger."

I can't help but cringe at that, and she notices, since she raises an eyebrow at me, giggling again when I explain a second later. "It's called fender _bender_, Maura. Not banger."

"I'm glad you're so good with slang expressions and can help me learn", she sincerely tells me, then giggles again; I can't help but smirk as well, and then I have to stop the car at a red light and decide that now, it's my turn to take the initiative for once, so I lean over to her and kiss her, man, I can't get enough of how sweet her lips taste.

She lets out a barely audible, but clearly pleased "Hmm" sound that's so cute and sweet it makes me want to kiss her again right away; unfortunately, the light turned green by now though and so I have to drive on if I don't want to cause a honking concert behind me. Maura makes up for the lack of more kissing though by at first patting my leg a bit, then even squeezing it, and suddenly, her hand feels much warmer than it should, radiating heat through the fabric of my pants.

"How was that about not wanting to distract me?" I tease her, realizing too late that my current state quite clearly shows through my voice – it's even hoarser than usual, and from the way Maura looks at me, it's obvious she noticed, too.

"I'm sure you're still concentrating very well", she smirks, not taking her hand away, but even caressing my leg now instead, wow, that's quite daring, I never would have thought she could act like that, no matter how blunt she sometimes can be.

"Well, I'm giving my best", I let her know, and when I finally park the car in front of her house, I'm almost relieved – it was getting decidedly harder and harder to concentrate properly with her touching and caressing me like that during the whole drive.

I know that, once we're inside, there'll be no more smooching, I don't worry that Ma finds out, which she will sooner or later, but I don't feel exactly comfortable about kissing my… about kissing Maura in front of my mother, so I lean over just like I did at the red light and kiss her, but with much more fervour this time, and again, not an innocent peck this time.

"This will have to make up for the kisses we're missing until we're alone again", I tell her in a low voice after we pulled apart; now, I'm not the only one in a certain state in this car anymore, as it's plainly obvious from the way she looks at me and breathes quicker than before.

"It almost does", she finally says, "but I think we both need another one to fully make up for it…"

Again, how could I say no to that? Of course there's no way in Hell, so I just smirk and then I lean over again, and we kiss once more before we finally get out of the car and head inside, the smell of the dinner Ma's made greeting us and making my stomach rumble, but food's not the only thing I hunger for right now, and suddenly I hope that Ma won't stay too long after we've finished eating.

* * *

><p>To my endless happiness, Ma doesn't, telling us that she's had had a hard day at the cafeteria – urgh, I still can't believe she's working there now, as if it wasn't enough that she's living in the guest house here now – and that she wants to hit the hay right after we got done eating; Maura and I, polite as we are, both wish her a good night, and after she left, Maura asks me if I want a beer.<p>

"I know that beer helps you relax after a tiring day", she tells me after I nodded and she got a bottle from the fridge, opens it and hands it to me, "even though it would be better for your health if you'd relax by meditating or doing yoga."

"I can think of other, healthier things to relax, too, but they don't involve yoga or meditation", I tell her, purposefully with a lustful tone in my voice now, and of course she picks it up, since her cheeks redden just enough to be noticeable.

"I recommend you keep those things in mind until we went to the bedroom", she tells me, wow, so that's how we decide if I'm gonna spend the night again or not, "because the couch may be big, but I doubt it is comfortable enough for those… activities."

"We could find out", I suggest while we make our way to said couch, after she poured herself a glass of wine; we sit down, side by side and so close that there's not even air between us, our legs and arms touching, sending small sparks of electricity all through me and I wonder if it's the same for her.

"Maybe", she smiles at me, with a twinkle in her eyes I've seen before, during last night to be exact; my response is to put the beer on the table, then I pull her into a embrace – quite fiercely, I have to admit – and we kiss, and again I can't help but ask myself if I'll ever get enough of feeling her lips on mine. Then, Joe Friday barks and decides to jump up on the couch, totally ruining the mood; for a moment, I feel annoyed, then Maura laughs and I can't help but laugh, too.

"Seems like someone wants attention", she says, reaching out to ruffle Joe's fur, smiling when the dog barks in reply; I shrug, then take hold of Joe and put her down on the ground again, scolding her for jumping up and ruining our moment. A moment later, I'm glad she did that though, since there's a knock at the door and then Tommy enters, man, I don't even wanna imagine him walking in on us kissing.

"Um, hi", he says, looking a bit awkward, making me wonder if he has seen something or if he's picking up on something, "Dr. Isles, I just wanted to tell you that I signed a lease for an apartment today and that I'll move there in two weeks, just so you know."

"Oh that's great", Maura beams, "congratulations, Tommy. Isn't that great, Jane?" I make some non-committal grunting noise, after all, this isn't the first time that Tommy got out of prison and it seemed as if his life would get back on track, so I'll wait with the celebration until he actually manages to stay out of trouble long enough until his probation period is over.

"Thanks", Tommy now says, ignoring my lack of enthusiasm, and to my dismay, I notice the way he looks at Maura, kinda a worshipping look, oh I don't like this, "and, well, I wanted to ask if you could borrow us some coffee, Ma's just used the last one."

"Oh, of course", Maura immediately tells him and gets up from the couch to get the coffee, "which blend would you like? I have several."

"Um, a strong one?" Tommy guesses, and for a moment, I'm sure Maura will go googlemouth on him and instruct him about different blends, different roasts and different coatings of the beans, but instead of doing that, she just nods after a second and finds a pack of coffee in one of the cupboards and gives it to my brother.

"Thanks", he beams at her, I do not like that grin on his face, it's that "I'm so handsome" grin he uses to pick up chicks, I know that, "you're a dear, Dr. Isles."

"You're very welcome", she reassures him, then asks him if he needs anything else; luckily, he takes the hint and shakes his head, then wishes us a nice evening before he wanders off, back to the guesthouse.

"I'm surprised you didn't go Google on him about the different blends and what not", I tell Maura while she moves back to the couch and sits down next to me again, her response making me chuckle slightly. "I almost did, but then I realized that this would keep him from leaving and that the consequence of that would be that it'd take longer until we'd be alone again."

"Good thinking", I compliment her, then give Joe a strict look so she won't interrupt again before I pull Maura close once more for yet another kiss, and apparently, my glaring helped because Joe's not interrupting us again and we can enjoy kissing and even a bit of touching – through the clothes, nothing too heated, not yet – until Maura finally decides that, yes, the couch is comfortable enough and dims the lights, and everything but her is blown from my mind.


	5. Chapter 5

In the next morning, it's not my phone that wakes me, but Maura's alarm clock, with those strangely low beeping sounds it always makes; she's explained to me once that the reason for the weird noises her clock makes is that this wakes up not as harshly as high-toned beeps, but to me it doesn't make much of a difference, it wakes me up either way, and quite harshly, too. The good thing is that again, I wake up next to Maura, and the first thing I see when I open my eyes is her beautiful face, her gaze meeting mine, the alarm clock obviously did it's job with her, as well.

"Good morning", I mumble, and to my surprise, her eyes start to sparkle immediately, wow, and that right after waking up.

"Your voice sounds very… inspiring after you just woke up", she explains, and I can't help but raise an eyebrow at that choice of words. "Inspiring? Really?"

"My first choice would have been 'uprising'", Maura admits, "but that didn't seem fitting."

"Um", is all I can reply at first, "no. It wouldn't have fit." She beams at me, then scoots a bit closer for a good morning kiss; afterwards, she gets up and, while checking her wardrobe for what she's gonna wear, asks if she can ride to work with me again or if she should take her own car today.

"Whatever you want", I tell her, and for a moment, I almost added "Sweetie", not so sure if that would've been a good idea or not, "you know I won't mind if you drive with me again."

"I know", she reassures me, "but it would have been impolite of me to just assume that you'd be willing to drive me again. Also, I don't make assumptions." I make some non-committal grunting noise as an answer to that – I really don't feel like giving a lengthy explanation about how this would not have been impolite at all and why she shouldn't worry about such stuff with me – then tell her that I'll go and have a shower; and moments later, she surprises me again when she smirks at me and asks if I would mind her joining me.

"Um", is all I can reply at first, then I shake my head a bit to clear it and can answer her in a more coherent fashion. "Not at all, but wouldn't… you know, it might take much longer then and we might be late."

"No we won't", Maura reassures me, her next words being yet another surprise for me, I never would have thought she'd be like that, "I purposefully set the alarm clock to ring half an hour earlier than necessary."

"You vixen", I playfully accuse her, and she just smiles before, without another word, grabs my hand and pulls me into the bathroom, and not too long afterwards, I don't really care about how long the shower will take us and if we'll be late.

* * *

><p>Thanks to Maura and her sneakiness with the alarm clock, we are not late; again, none of the guys in the bull pen noticed that we arrived together once more, since our ways parted at the elevator, but they do notice that I'm in a much better mood than usual when I greet them – but my greeting has been rather enthusiastic, I have to admit.<p>

"Look who's in a good mood", Frost of course immediately has to comment, "what happened? Normally at that time, all we get from you are grunts."

"Nothing happened", I lie, I hope he won't notice, "can't I be in a good mood without a reason?"

"No", Korsak and he reply in perfect unison, and I only dignify that with raising an eyebrow at them before I decide to ignore them and sit down at my computer, there's still some paperwork to do about the severed head I've received yesterday.

Unfortunately, I can only focus on that for about ten minutes, then the phone on my desk rings and distracts me; rolling my eyes, I pick up the receiver and take the call, all annoyance blown away when I hear what the person on the other end of the line has to say.

"Frost, Korsak", I gain the attention of my partners the moment I hung up, "I have to go downstairs to the mail room… There's another package." They exchange a worried glance at hearing that, then nod, already knowing what's inside that package; while I hurry to the elevator, I call Maura and tell her about it, as well, and ask her to meet me in the mailroom, she won't be able to do much there, but I want her there with me, even though I wouldn't admit it to anyone, the thought that yet another head has been sent to me is quite upsetting.

She reassures me that she'll be there, and when I arrive there, she is, standing next to the table the already opened package has put on, already wearing a pair of gloves so any evidence might not be contaminated.

"He went one step further this time", she tells me as I enter the room and move up to her, and my heart skips a beat when I look into the box.

This time, whoever is sending me those charming presents didn't just send me the head; instead, a dark red rose has been clenched between the teeth of the killed man, and at the second glance, I notice that a card has been tied to the flower's stem.

"Someone's in love with you, Detective", the guy responsible for the mail tries to joke, but he sounds too nervous to make it work; I don't even bother to answer that, and Maura only dignifies that with an annoyed look, as well, before she carefully takes hold of the rose and removes it, then opens the card and holds it so we both can read it.

_Your work shall never be in vain again. _

_This just the beginning._

_With love_

_The Sandman_

"Jesus Christ", I can't help but say, looking up from the card and at Maura, "this is fucked up."

"I wouldn't have quite put it like this, but clearly, we are not dealing with a fully sane individual here", Maura agrees, carefully putting the flower and the card attached to it back into the box so it won't be damaged, then picks the box up and tells me that she'll take it to the morgue.

Since the gruesome present ruined my concentration for the silly paperwork anyway, I ask her if it's okay to come along, and she agrees; I tell the mailroom guy to keep this to himself, then leave with her, not able to keep myself from looking at the box again and again while we walk to the morgue.

Once there, Maura takes pictures of the box, the flower and the card, and of the head itself of course before she takes it out and puts it on the table; I know she'll have to take more photos of the head, from all possible angles and what not, but before she does that, she hurries off with the card, the flower and the cardboard box, leaving me alone with the severed head.

Since I'm not wearing gloves, I don't touch it, but just look at it; again, the face seems vaguely familiar, there's dried blood in the blonde hair and a bit of it on the pale lips, and I'm quite sure that again, it will turn out that this man was a suspect in one of my cases – after all, the text on the card makes that quite clear.

Feeling nervous again, I run one hand through my hair while I keep studying the head and wait for Maura to come back; finally, she does, and obviously, one look at my face is enough to let her see that I'm upset, since she moves to my side and puts one hand on my arm, sounding worried when she speaks up. "Are you handling this okay? Your facial muscles show me that you are feeling upset about this."

"Of course I feel upset", I snap at her, regretting it the moment the words left my mouth, after all, she's just worried and doesn't deserve such a reaction.

"Sorry", I thus apologize, "I didn't mean to snap at you…"

"It's alright", she reassures me, luckily she's not mad at me, "and very understandable, your reaction to upsetting events usually is a rough one, so I was anticipating something like that."

"I'm not sure if I should be glad now that you know me so well or offended", I let her know; she just smiles and shrugs, then moves closer to the table so she can start the examination of the head. The first thing she looks at are the muscles and tendons where the head has been severed from the body; just like with Sullivan's, the cuts are rough and uneven, and it doesn't take her long to determine that they were made with the same tool as the ones at the neck of our first victim.

"I wonder why he calls himself Sandman", I wonder out loud while I watch her work, of course I only get a shrug in reply, any answer she could give to that would be guessing, after all, but that doesn't stop me from going on. "There's a comic book where the hero calls himself that, Frankie used to read it."

"Don't forget the sandman in European myths", Maura absent-mindedly tells me while examining the head further, "in those versions, he's either a demon who removes the eyes of naughty children to feed them to his own offspring, or a benevolent spirit, putting the children to sleep with magical sand and sending them sweet dreams."

"I think our guy's closer to the demon than to the benevolent spirit", I mumble while Maura carefully pries the head's mouth open and peers inside, "even though he obviously sees himself as some kind of vigilante hero and thinks he's doing me a favour."

"Which is very warped thinking, undermining our theory that he's not exactly stable", Maura says, briefly looking up and at me, "after all, even if his victims did murder someone, killing them puts him on the same level."

"You and I know that, but he obviously doesn't", I point out to her, "but if he's a nutjob, which I'm pretty sure about, he of course won't figure that out." Maura just nods this time, now fully focused on the examination; I watch her for a bit longer, then finally realize that I have work to do, as well, and ask her if I can take the camera upstairs with me so we can get the photos she made into the database and won't have to waste time with taking our own pics.

"Sure, just bring it back when you're done", she shrugs, and I thank her before I take the camera and make my way back upstairs, already knowing in which database we'll find this new victim.

* * *

><p>"Geoffrey Thorne", Frost reads out loud not even half an hour later, we really found the guy fast this time, "he was our prime suspect for a case last year. Murder, of course. It never went to trial though, there wasn't enough evidence to get that far."<p>

"So the case just was dropped?" I want to know, I know I should remember, but there've been so many cases since I started working in homicide, and my brain has a limited capacity.

"It's labelled as cold case", Frost lets me know, "so yeah, it was more or less dropped."

"How does he find them?" I wonder out loud as an answer to that, looking at the computer screen again, "he could get their names from old press articles, but I doubt they all say that I've been working those cases. What if he has access to our data?"

"That's an unsettling thought", Frost comments, making me look at him again, which prompts him to go on and add an explanation.

"Because it either means that someone hacked into our database, which would be bad", he tells me, and I have to agree, that would be bad indeed; what he says next though is even worse, the mere thought making my blood run cold. "Or it's someone with official access to all the files."

"Someone on the inside", I clarify, looking around in dismay as if I could spot the perpetrator just because we made that connection now, not liking the thought, but knowing that it might be correct. "One of us."


	6. Chapter 6

Frost and I got so busy with trying to find out who accessed the database since the killings started that I completely forgot about giving the camera back to Maura, and I only remember when she enters the bull pen to get it herself, any reprimand she might have had on her mind obviously gone the moment she sees the expression both Frost and I are wearing.

"Did you find out something troubling?" she wants to know while she moves to stand next to my chair so she can look at the screen; I shrug and rub my eyes, and for some reason, Frost takes my shrugging as a signal that he should explain, and he does just that. His explanation makes it obvious to Maura why I'd feel upset, and she moves even closer to me, so close that our bodies are almost touching, and puts one hand on my shoulder, rubbing it soothingly, her tender touch immediately helping me relax, at least a tiny bit.

"As if it's not enough that Hoyt's in love with me, now there's some second creep around who apparently has similar feelings", I grumble to myself, which prompts Maura's hand to move from my shoulder to the back of my neck; I have to say that she knows what she's doing, her fingers move in small circles, rubbing the tension in the muscles there away.

"At least this creep is not threatening you", Frost makes a rather lame attempt to help calm me down; then, he notices the way Maura is not massaging my neck now, but that her touch is closer to caressing, and briefly raises an eyebrow – before he either shrugs it off or decides to store it for later, since he makes no further comment.

"That's such a calming thought", I grumble at him and roll my eyes, "at least Hoyt is behind bars where he can't harm me, but there's some psycho out there now – or right here, in the BPD – who thinks killing people and sending me their heads will charm me."

"In his warped mind, he probably thinks it does", Maura comments, then finally remembers why she came here and asks me for the camera; I give it to her after I made sure we saved the pictures to the database, then Frost asks if we should go and check out Thorne's home for any clues, earning a nod from both Maura and me.

"Should I come along?" she then asks, looking at me and completely ignoring poor Frost, "there might be evidence there which needs to be collected."

"Actually we can…" Frost starts, then notices the way I look at him and falls silent before he shrugs it off and just nods, making her smile at him.

"Are you done with the head?" I want to know before I tell her that yes, she should come along, "I don't want to keep you from your work, Frost's right, we are trained to collect evidence."

"There's not much to do about the head right now", she shrugs as an answer, "I sent samples of the blood to the lab again and the rose and the card aren't back yet, either, so…"

"Let's go then", I decide, getting up from my chair, forcing Maura to pull back her hand; Frost gives us a thoughtful look as he observes that, but again he doesn't make any comment. I wonder if he'll ever dare to ask me or if he'll just write it off as our usual behaviour and not give it any more thought, I guess I'll just have to wait and see to find out, I'm certainly not gonna start any talk about Maura and me.

We quickly tell Korsak where we'll be going, then the three of us hurry off; I hope that the address we have in our file is still correct and that Thorne didn't move after he got off our hook, but there's just one way to find out.

"I'll meet you at your car", Maura tells me while we enter the elevator, "I need to get my kit from the morgue first."

"Sure, we'll wait for you", I shrug, and Frost nods his agreement; together with him, I get out at the ground floor while Maura goes down into the morgue, and the way he clears his throat as we walk to my car makes me wonder if he now wants to say something after all and is just working up the nerve to do so.

"Think we should put a patrol car outside your apartment building?" he asks instead of making inquiries about Maura and me; I think about this for a moment, then shake my head – the patrol car should probably be at Maura's house, since I spend more time there than at my home anyway, but after that little note the guy sent me, I don't consider myself as part of his "To Do" list.

"I don't think he'll go after me", I let him know at his surprised look, "remember the note? He's got the hots for me and he's trying to impress me. Cutting off my head won't do that job."

"He might come after you once he realizes it's not working though", Frost argues, "and even though I know how much of a badass you can be, it won't hurt then to have backup outside."

"Badass?" I repeat, raising an eyebrow at him, "really?"

"That was a compliment", he defends himself, making me smirk, "don't give me that look."

"I know, just teasing you", I smirk at him, and he rolls his eyes; then, Maura finally joins us, and there's a brief squabble about who sits were until they settle on Maura in the backseat and Frost on the passenger seat. I would have preferred it to have her next to me, but on the other hand, fumbling me wouldn't be a wise thing to do with Frost there to see, so I guess it doesn't really matter.

And just five minutes later, I learn it was a good idea that she sits in the back – she chose to sit behind my seat, and since Frost can't see what she's doing with her left hand there, said hand sneakily moves past the seat and to my side, coming to a tender rest there. Seems like I'm not the only one who worries about keeping her hands to herself, but unlike me, Maura doesn't even bother to try. Not that I would mind.

* * *

><p>Luckily, it turns out that Thorne still lived at the address we had during the time he was our prime suspect; the door's locked, but that doesn't stop us, Frost just kicks it open and we enter. Already in the hallway, we all notice the smell and exchange glances – after doing this job for so long, recognizing the smell of blood is an easy thing to do, and it takes us just a moment longer to identify the second odour that's in the air.<p>

"Faeces", Maura finds it necessary to say it out loud for us, "not surprising if he was killed here, when the muscles relax in the moment of death, the bowels tend to empty themselves."

"Thanks for that information", Frost mumbles, sounding a bit strained; I give him a sharp look, not wanting him to throw up all over our crime scene, then I get my gun out of the holster, even though there's probably no other living person around but us – better to be safe than sorry.

Together with Frost, we check the first few rooms, with no result; then, he pushes the door to the bedroom open and gags audibly, not that I can blame him now, it is quite the gruesome sight.

The body's splayed on the bed, arms and legs thrown wide, but not restrained; he's naked, and wow, he really lost shape since he was our suspect, he must have gained at least twenty kilograms – if it is Thorne, it's hard to tell with the head missing.

"So there's the rest of him", I mutter while I slowly walk closer to the bed and look at the body, "he didn't even bother to hide it. I wonder if Sullivan's in his home like that, too."

"I'll have a car drive there and check it out", Frost immediately decides and runs off to do just that, I guess he would have taken any other excuse to get out, but I prefer this to him puking at the crime scene.

"Fitting that the body is on the bed, with our perpetrator calling himself the Sandman", Maura comments while she walks closer and looks at the blood-spattered sheets, then at the splatters of the red stuff which go up over the wall all the way to the ceiling, gesturing at them afterwards as she turns to look at me again. "The head got cut off here, see how the blood splattered all the way up to the ceiling? That means he was still alive when the decapitation happened."

"Oh God, I hope he was knocked out", I grimace, he was a murderer and scum, even if we could never prove it completely, but no one deserves to die like that.

"I'm pretty sure he was", Maura confirms, "there are no signs of any restraints on his wrists or ankles, and the fact that he's naked suggests he was asleep when the perpetrator came in here and administered the tranquilizer I'm sure we'll find in his system."

"So he breaks into the apartment at night, when they sleep", I start piecing things together as a reply, "gives them tranquilizer so they won't wake up and saws off their heads? Gruesome."

"It does seem like the logical way to do something like this", Maura agrees, this time not even scolding me for guessing and making assumptions, "not to mention the fact that, even if they should wake up due to the pain of being cut, if he starts at the right spot, namely at the artery here" – she points it out to me, just to make sure I don't miss it – "the heart would serve to pump the blood out of the body very fast, causing a quick loss of control over the body, followed by unconsciousness."

"Man", is all I can say, then I snap out of it and the detective part of my brain takes over, I put the gun back into the holster and get out my phone instead, calling the crime scene unit and telling them to send a team here as fast as possible; just as I hang up, Frost comes back inside, looking a bit less green now, maybe he puked after he called the station so a car would be dispatched to Sullivan's place.

"They'll send someone", he tells me, "and I know you didn't want that, but I also told them someone should have an eye on your place."

"What?" I nearly explode, I can't believe he did that behind my back; and in an instant, Maura's next to me and her hand is on my back in an attempt to soothe me so I won't bite Frost's head off.

"It's not a bad idea, Jane", she tells me, now trying to take the heat off of him, "whoever this man is, he's clearly out of his mind and has no scruples. You should be protected."

"Well, they should send a car to your house then, too", I snap as an answer, man, I don't wanna snap at Maura, but right now, I can't really help it, "seeing how much time I spend there, not to mention that my Mom lives in your guesthouse."

"Actually, I already told them to do just that", Frost tells me, and I can see that he's holding back a grin, oh that sneaky jerk, "we all know how much time you're spending at Maura's place. Look, Jane, this isn't a dig at your abilities as a cop, you know I respect you, but that guy's clearly a nutjob."

"Yeah, fine, right, whatever", I decide to give in, there's no use in discussing this, not with Maura and Frost teaming up on me now, not to mention that surely, Korsak, Cavanaugh and probably anyone else of the homicide unit will agree with them, too, "as long as those guys won't get in my way."

"You know they won't", Frost starts another try to calm me down and make me more accepting of the whole idea, "they're professionals, like you and me and Dr. Isles. They'll just keep an eye on you so in case that psycho shows up with his saw at your place, you'll have help with kicking his ass."

"As if I'd need that", I grumble, but don't try to talk him out of it; I knew one call would be enough to get that order pulled back, at least for a while, but he does have a good point, so I just accept it, only grumbling a bit more to myself while I walk out of the bedroom again and into the hallway, standing around there quite uselessly until finally, the team from the crime scene unit arrives.


	7. Chapter 7

Author's Note: A quick Thanks to all of you who put this on story alert - it gives me quite the warm and fuzzy feeling that so many people are interested in this :) I hope you'll enjoy the following chapter!

* * *

><p>While the crime scene unit team was working in Thorne's apartment, we got a call informing us that Sullivan was found at his place as well, on the bed, headless, clad in his pyjama; of course we still need to wait for confirmation that it's really them, but we're all quite convinced that this is the case, even Maura.<p>

Since there is nothing else we can do now at the scene until the unit got done, we head back to the station, and I go down to the morgue with Maura, it's not like I have anything else to do right now.

"Hungry?" she asks me when we arrive there and then, oh God, she moves to the dead people fridge and gets out her lunch, obviously she'd be willing to share it with me, but… no. Just no.

"Not if it comes from the dead people fridge", I tell her and grimace; she shakes her head and tells me that cold air is cold air, as she does every time I complain about eating food from there, not letting my obvious disgust stop her from eating.

"You should get some food, too", she advises between two bites, "you need the energy."

"Not hungry", I mutter, and the tone of my voice makes her put her fork down and give me a concerned glance.

"Are you sure you're okay?" she then asks, putting her food aside and getting up so she can move to my side and again put one hand on my back; my initial response is a grunt, then I shake my head and give her a look, unable to keep the light hint of desperation out of my voice when I answer her.

"Why is it always me, Maura?" I want to know, and from her confused expression I can immediately tell that she has no clue what I'm talking about.

"This is the second psycho serial killer guy who's apparently in love with me", I thus clarify, "why do I attract these guys? Is there some vibe I'm giving off which is appealing to them, or what?"

"Well, I'm attracted to you", Maura tells me, giving me a smile which is probably supposed to calm me down, "and I can assure you I'm not a psycho serial killer guy."

"You're not a guy at all", I point out to her, "and, well, you like to cut open dead people. Some might say that this is a bit… peculiar."

"You don't", Maura shrugs, "and I have to correct you, I don't exactly _like_ cutting up dead people. I do it though make the world a better place by helping to solve the crimes which put them on my table. And it doesn't make me a psychotic killer."

"I know that", I mumble, if she's trying to cheer me up, I have to say she's really not doing a very good job with it. Apparently, she notices that too, since her hand starts rubbing my back soothingly, and her voice is much lower when she goes on, making me look at her again.

"Remember when Hoyt said that I'm like him and how I got upset about it? You talked to me then, calmed me down, and convinced me that he's wrong. Now, I want to do the same for you, but you know I'm not much good with such situations… I'll give it a try though… No, no, no!" she cries out when I open my mouth, "don't interrupt me, just let me talk."

Figuring I might as well do just that, I shrug and give her a curious look, and after a few moments of sorting her thoughts, she finally continues.

"It's not your fault", she starts, holding my gaze the whole time, and I see nothing but sincerity in her wonderful eyes. "You're not giving off any… vibe or something similar which might attract such men. You are the only woman in homicide though, at least currently, and very good at your job. Not to mention the press time you got when you shot yourself to stop that corrupt cop."

She grimaces at the memory, and I do too, my hand automatically moving to my side where I can feel the scar tissue through the fabric of my shirt, and simultaneously, Maura's hand slides to my back, where the bullet went back out and left an even bigger scar.

"So the fact that I'm the only woman in the homicide unit is what attracted that guy to me?" I want to know, even though I'm perfectly well aware of what she said, I just wanna win some more time so I can come up with a proper response.

"Might be", Maura shrugs, "or the fact that you are an extraordinary and strong woman. Depending on their psyche, a certain type of killer is attracted to that kind of woman. The ones who are looking for a mother figure."

"Oh jeez", is all I can say in reply to that, that really didn't cheer me up now, and I let my head drop forward so it comes to a rest on my arms which I folded on the table in front of me.

"I'm sorry", Maura sighs out after a moment of silence, "I told you I'm not very good with such situations…" Her hand moves up to the back of my neck and starts caressing me there, and even though her try to soothe me with words didn't work so well, this surely does.

"No, I'm sorry", I tell her after just enjoying the neck rub for a few moments, "I know you're no good with such… stuff, so I shouldn't have pressured you into it."

"You didn't pressure me", she reassures me as once, "and also, this is my, well, calling it duty would not be fitting, but something I should do, considering I'm your…" She trails off, and I once more wonder if this "No Labels" thing has been smart; before I can say something about that though, someone clears his throat at the door, and we practically jump apart, I wince as I'm quite sure Maura took along some hairs when she jerked her hand away. So much about not acting any different.

"Yes?" Maura regains her composure much quicker than me, even though I notice she fumbles for the guy's name for a second, "…Craig? Can I help you?"

"Um", Craig says in reply, his gaze darting back and forth between Maura and me, man, I do not want to know what is happening in his head right now, "the results are here… for the last homicide… Just wanted to give them to you." He holds up the thin folder as if to hide behind it, and Maura gives him a charming smile to calm him down while she gets up and moves over to him, then takes the folder from him and thanks him in her most friendly tone, apparently she noticed as well how freaked out he is.

"You're welcome", he mumbles, then turns and hurries off, and I swear I can see him blush; I shake my head to myself while Maura returns to my side, already opening the folder and peering into it.

"Even if no one noticed anything so far, it'll be all over the precinct tomorrow", I tell her, gaining her attention again, and from the way she raises an eyebrow, I can tell at once that she has no clue what I mean.

"Didn't you notice the look on his face?" I thus want to know, finding it hard to believe that she didn't, and she shrugs, then looks at the folder again, not sounding disturbed the slightest when she replied. "I did, but I'm not sure he jumped to the conclusions you think he jumped to, Jane. He seemed quite peeped out, this is correct, but maybe for other reasons."

"Freaked out, Maura", I correct her, man, peeped out? How does she come up with that stuff? "It's called freaked out."

She just smiles at me, then shrugs again and tells me that, from what she has observed so far, Craig isn't the gossipy type and that he's mostly keeping to himself, not having much contact with the other people in the lab.

"Ok, fine, whatever", I decide to ditch the subject, "it's not like I'd care if anyone would know, not right now. I'd rather have them talk about me and you than about me and crazy psycho serial killer guy."

"That's the right attitude", Maura beams at me, and I only roll my eyes at her in reply; her smile impossibly widens even further, and then she leans over for a quick kiss before she focuses on the lab results at last while I remain where I am, not wanting to go back upstairs now, feeling the need to be close to her, to the woman who means so much to me and who understands me so well just by looking at me – even if sometimes, she might have a hard time to make anything of that understanding.

* * *

><p>Unfortunately, I can't hide away in the morgue for the rest of the day, but have to go back upstairs when Frost pages me; I make Maura promise me that she'll call or text me the moment she finds anything, and after a quick look around to make sure no one's watching and the subsequent stealing of a kiss, I make my way to the bullpen, where Frost is sitting at his table, drinking coffee and waiting for me.<p>

"The crime scene unit got done at the homes of our victims", is his greeting to me, and from the look on his face I can already tell what they found, but just to make sure, I ask anyway. "Let me guess, nothing?"

"Nothing", Frost confirms with a sigh, putting his coffee down on the table, "but if the guy really is one of us, it'd make sense, he'd know how to avoid leaving any prints." I make some agreeing noise, and moments later, Frost visibly brightens, proudly holding up another piece of paper and sounding quite happy as well when he goes on.

"I got something else though", he lets me know, waving the paper in my face, "they found the one who's responsible for hacking our database."

"So it was hacked? That could be our guy", I ponder out loud, taking the paper from him and looking at it, but all it is to me is a bunch of techno-babble, so I give it back and look at Frost again, who knows me well enough by now to start explaining again.

"Could be", he agrees, "I have the IT guys working on tracing the IP right now. If it works out, we'll soon know where to find this guy."

"Shouldn't being a hacker include avoiding that?" I want to know, I don't know much about that stuff since it's never really interested me, but I know that Frost has some knowledge about it, even though, at least as far as I know, he never did any of that stuff himself.

"Yup", Frost confirms, "and if the guy's good, we won't find him. But maybe we'll be lucky."

"We'd deserve some luck", I grumble, and he immediately nods his agreement; he looks at his piece of paper once more, then adds it to the folder of papers we have accumulated about the case by now, a folder which was quite thin at first, but has considerably thickened since I received the second head.

"I'll page you the moment they tell me anything", Frost promises me, distracting me from the thickness of the folder; for a moment, I feel tempted to ask why he thinks I won't be around once he gets any information, then I just shrug it off and nod.

"You do that", I agree verbally as well, and for a moment, he looks as if he wants to say or maybe ask something else; then, he remains quiet though, and I get back to my desk to go through the files of Sullivan and Thorne once more, even though I've done that about a hundred times by now, but that doesn't stop me, I need to make sure that we didn't miss anything – and I need to pass the time until the techie guys got something for us, so maybe, they'll tell us where to find that hacker and thus, if we're really lucky, the one who killed those two guys so he'll be stopped before he can murder anyone else.


	8. Chapter 8

For once, the techie guys were surprisingly fast – that hacker really can't have been very good, but, well, luck smiles at us for once I guess – and they get us the exact location of the computer which was used to hack our database.

Before we go off to nail the guy and see if he's the one who killed the two victims, I text Maura to let her know so she won't try to find me and ask herself where I am; and while we grab our jackets and hurry outside, her answer arrives at my phone, wow, that was fast.

_Take care. If he's infuriated by you, your presence might cause him to react irrationally. Also, I'd like you back in one piece for later tonight. ;-)_

Wow, that was _really_ fast, considering she wrote so much, and that little bit at the end about wanting me in one piece for later tonight makes me smirk to myself. Unfortunately, Frost notices the smirk, and even more unfortunate is that I can't pull my phone away fast enough to keep him from seeing the text; he gives me a curious look, but doesn't say anything, either because he doesn't want to be nosy or because we took a few uniformed officers with us for backup and he feels they're not supposed to hear anything he might have to say.

"Looking at other people's phones is impolite", I tell him anyway, I know I'm risking a smartass comment after all with those words, but I can't really help it; he just smirks and then, oh Jesus, he _winks_ at me, if that isn't a signal that he did figure something out – maybe not all of it, but something – and sooner or later, I'm gonna hear about it.

For a moment, I consider sending Maura some sort of warning in case he'll come to her and bug her about the change in our relationship – man, even though we decided we wouldn't act any different, something must have changed, or Frost never would have noticed – then decide against it, at least for now – we reached the garage by now and the uniform brigade is piling into one of their cars while Frost stands next to mine and gives me a look that basically screams "What are you waiting for?", so I put my phone back where it belongs and get out my keys, and half a minute later, we're on the road, the car of the uniforms right behind us.

"Dr. Isles was right, you know", Frost tells me after we just drove along in silence for a while, making me look at him while I realize with a little gulp that now, it's just him and me in the car, the perfect chance to ask anything which might be burning on his mind, "if he does have the hots for you, it might send him into some kind of fit if you'll be the one who'll try to arrest him. We wouldn't want you to get hurt… Neither me, nor Dr. Isles, I imagine."

"Look", I give back, rolling my eyes, "you know you don't need to tell me that, and so does Maura, so if you have anything to say or want to ask me anything, just spit it out and don't bother me with vague innuendos."

"I just meant how you're best friends", Frost protests, but he doesn't really sound like he means it, and one look from me is enough to make him go on, and to my surprise, he sounds quite sincere now, and much more serious than he did just a minute ago.

"Well, Jane", he starts, "I won't sugarcoat anything, you know that there's been a lot of talk about the relationship between Maura and you, and most people didn't believe the best friends thing you always claimed whenever you happened you heard that talk." He falls silent, as if he waits for me to say something, and so I let out some grunting noise, hoping that this will be enough; apparently it is, since after a few more moments, he goes on, still with that strange sincere tone in his voice.

"I bought it too, you know. Until I saw how you lately touch her and how she touches you. That little neck rub she gave you up at your desk? Didn't look like the way best friends would touch each other." He falls silent and gives me another curious look, I'm not sure what he wants to hear now, an outright confession? Well, I'm not gonna make things that easy for him, and so I just grunt again – and a moment later, he goes on, and surprises me once more.

"Look, I know it's none of my business, and you're not obligated to tell me everything about your life, no matter if we're partners or not. I just want you to know that, if there is something going on between you and the doctor, well… It wouldn't really surprise me. And neither me, nor Vince would have the slightest problem with it."

Well, that's good to know, but I still don't want to make it too easy for him, and even if neither Korsak, nor he will "have a problem with it", as he called it, that doesn't mean that anyone else will react the same way once they find out about the change in the relationship of Maura and me, so all he gets is yet another grunting noise. I can't help but wonder though what he meant with "it wouldn't really surprise me", so I inquire further about that, making him shrug, his gaze still focused on me when he replies. "Come on, the way the two of you were behaving? You know as well as I do that half of the precinct thought you're a couple anyway."

"More than that, I bet", I mutter, then I let out a small sigh and look at him briefly before I focus on the road again, giving my best to sound threatening when I go on. "You're right, it's none of your business, but I appreciate what you just said. Let's just leave it at that, alright?"

"Alright", he shrugs, accepting it surprisingly quickly, wow, I would have expected more prodding and asking, "but just let me say one more thing." He goes quiet, as if he's waiting for my permission – hey, maybe that's what I was doing, wow, I really must have managed that threatening sound I wanted to achieve, and I give him another quick look before I nod, making him continue once more.

"We really wouldn't care", he tells me, as if to make sure I got that right, "and we'd have your back. Just in case any of the guys get… stupid."

"Thanks", I mumble after I let almost a full minute tick by in silence; he gives me a little smirk in reply, and then we arrive at the address the techie guys gave us, and I'm just glad I can get out of the car now, away from Frost's sincere words and his sudden insights. Man, he really is too good a detective if he figured that out so quickly, just from seeing the tiny changes in how Maura and I behave around each other. I just hope he's not just saying what he thinks I want to hear and that, should push ever come to shove, Korsak and he really will have my back, but my gut tells me that he meant each word he just said, and even though I didn't confirm or deny anything, it makes everything much, much easier already.

* * *

><p>Before we enter the apartment building in which the hacker lives, at least according to our techies, Frost and I instruct the uniform brigade to keep quiet for now and to follow us; luckily, they don't even try to discuss, but merely nod, and Frost and I move in first, making sure to keep quiet while we walk up to the second floor where that hacker's supposed to live.<p>

Already when we stop in front of the door, we hear someone scream and the sounds of slaughter; Frost and I exchange looks, the noises are somehow strange, not sounding the way they should, but we both ignore that for now and, after a nod from me, Frost rings the doorbell, we both keep our hands on our guns while we wait for someone to open.

The strange sounds keep coming while we hear approaching footsteps, and moments later, the door's unlocked and pulled open, and I immediately feel disappointed – standing in front of us is not some burly guy with the necessary strength to cut off heads, but a rather dainty woman with short, messed-up looking brunette hair, clad in black from head to toe, looking surprised when she finds herself face to face with us.

"Um, yes?" she still says after a moment, looking back and forth between Frost and me, the uniform brigade clearly not as interesting to her; I flash my badge at her, and her brown eyes widen, then her face pales, quite the interesting reaction, I have to say.

"Oh God", she starts before Frost or I can say anything, "that's about what I did in your database, right? Look, I swear I didn't read anything, I just wanted to see if I could get in…"

"You'll have to come to the precinct with us", I tell her in reply, "there are some things we have to ask you."

"You're arresting me?" she squeaks, her voice gets surprisingly high, and I quickly shake my head – my gut already tells me that it's not her, she looks as if she wouldn't even be able to hold a handsaw properly, but we'll still have to take her along for questioning.

"We just want to ask you a few things", Frost now chimes in as well, "so, if you cooperate with us, no arrest will be necessary."

"Okay, sure, I'll come along", she immediately tells us, "just let me get my jacket…"

I follow her while she moves to the small living room, the whole apartment isn't all too big, and watch how she grabs a jacket from the back of the chair in front of the computer; now that I can look at the monitor, I can see that some kind of game she's been playing has been making all that gruesome noises, and she gives me a nervous glance while she switches it off, then shuts the computer down.

While she's busy with that, I look around the room, and study the bookshelf at the opposite wall; the fact that she has quite a lot of books about serial killers raises an eyebrow, but on the other hand, that doesn't necessarily mean anything.

"Um, I guess we can go", she mumbles next to me, making me look at her again; now she looks as if she's close to tears, but I give my best to not let any emotions show and just nod, gesturing at her to lead the way, something she does after another fearful glance at me.

She keeps quiet though while Frost and I lead her downstairs and outside, to our car; when she gets into the back, she looks like she's about to cry again, but bravely fights back the tears, shifting on the seat while Frost and I get into the car as well and I start the engine.

We exchange another look, and I can see it in his eyes that he's just as convinced as me that this isn't the one we're looking for; none of us says anything though, and so I start the engine, and apparently, the noise set something off within the woman, because she starts talking again, sounding surprisingly calm.

"Look, you guys", she says with an almost pleading tone in her voice, "I really didn't look at anything or something, I was just in there for like two minutes. Do I really have to go with you?"

"Yes", Frost is the one to answer that, since I have to concentrate on traffic now, "but please try to remain calm, I reassure you that none of us means you any harm." She just lets out some weird noise in reply, then sinks back into the seat and looks out the window while I drive back to the precinct, already asking myself how much of my time I'll have to waste with questioning that woman, by now fully convinced that she's not the one who killed those two men.


	9. Chapter 9

The first thing Frost does is to check the ID the woman gave us, to make sure it's real and her real data, and while he's busy with that, I join her in the interrogation room where the uniform brigade put her, with photos of Sullivan and Thorne, and let them drop on the table in front of her before I sit down opposite of her and gesture at them. "Ever seen those guys before?"

To her credit, she takes some time to look at the pictures, and not just gives them a quick glance, like people often do; after almost a full minute, she looks up at me again and shakes her head, sounding mildly curious when she replies. "Nope, who're they? If they're from my group, I wouldn't know, I never met any of those guys face to face."

"Your group?" I ask in reply, and that makes her give me a funny look, but I ignore it for the sake of getting answers from her, one of them provided from her a moment later. "The hacker group, you know? Isn't this about me hacking your database?"

"Tell me more about that group", I demand in reply, mostly to buy some time until Frost confirmed her ID, but also because I wanna keep up the pretence for a bit longer.

"They're just a bunch of like-minded people", she shrugs, looking at the photos again, "and I wanted to be part of them, so they asked me to hack your database. It was some sort of test, you know? They said all I have to do would be to make a screenshot that I really got in and that'd be it, I swear I didn't read anything or tampered with the files or something…"

She falls silent and shifts on the seat, and then, the door opens and Frost pokes his head in, nodding at me to signal that the ID has been confirmed and that she really is who she said she is; I fold my hands on the table and look at her again while Frost closes the door again, and make sure to hold her gaze while I answer, addressing her with her surname now that it has been confirmed as her real one.

"Well, Miss Rendell, the hacking of our database is just one of the reasons why you are here today. Those two men were murdered not all too long ago", I tell her, and for a moment she looks confused, the same emotion showing through her voice when she speaks up. "And what does that have to… oh my God. Oh God. You think I did it? I swear I didn't! Why would I? Oh God." And suddenly, she bends down sideways and actually pukes. Wow, now that's a reaction we don't get often, I hope the camera we put up behind the one-way-mirror caught that on tape.

"Right now, we don't think you did it", I try to calm her down while I briefly look at the glass behind me so they'll get her some water, "but I have a few more questions for you. Are you up to answering them?"

"I think so", she mumbles, wiping her mouth and looking a bit ashamed, "just don't give me any gory details, okay?"

"Quite the reaction for someone who's so interested in serial killers", I point out, and she actually blushes, sounding a bit defensive when she answers that. "Reading about that stuff is different from sitting here and being told about it, okay? And anyway, being interested in that is not a crime."

"No, it's not", I confirm, "but hacking into the database of the Boston PD is. Before we get back to that, let me ask you something else – do you know who I am?"

"Of course", Rendell gives back, now looking at me funnily again, "you're that cop who shot herself to kill that other, dirty cop, I forgot his name. Also, I'm not sure anymore about yours, but I read about you in the paper."

"Detective Jane Rizzoli", I refresh her memory, and she nods, now actually looking a bit admiring.

"Man, you have guts", she tells me, "I never could have done that. I nearly faint when I cut my finger and it bleeds." Okay, yet another reason why it probably wasn't her, even though I can't know if she just told the truth; Maura will know though, thanks to the camera recording this conversation and hopefully focusing on Rendell's face the whole time.

I just shrug as an answer to her statement, and then Frost comes with the glass of water; this time, he doesn't leave again, but sits down next to me, watching with me how Rendell gulps half the glass down, then burps, giving us an apologetic look afterwards.

Now that Frost is here, I let him take over, since he knows more about that hacker stuff than I do anyway; I just watch how he asks her several questions about how she did it and why she did it and what she did once she had gotten in, and she sounds much more confident now that she can talk about a topic she knows much about, and to someone who clearly at least has a bit of an idea about it, as well.

"We're not planning any repercussions for the hacking", Frost tells her after they got done with their little techie babble, "and for now, you're free to go. We have to ask you to stay in town though, just in case any more questions come up."

"Sure", Rendell replies at once, now obviously relieved that we'll let her go; Frost gives her a smile, then gets up and tells her he'll take her outside, and I rise from my seat as well, but not to accompany them; instead, I go and join the guys who've been recording the conversation and ask them if the tape's okay, and as soon as they confirmed it, I text Maura and ask her to come up here so she can look at the tape with us and tell us her opinion, even though my gut already tells me what she will say – namely that Rendell was telling the truth and that, unfortunately, she's not the one we're looking for.

* * *

><p>The room is silent except for the sounds coming from the videotape, the talk I was having with Rendell before Frost joined us playing to the small group in front of the TV, consisting of Frost, me and Maura, her eyes fixed on the screen as she watches how Rendell talks about not knowing my name and about how she reacts to the sight of blood.<p>

"She's telling the truth", she finally says, grabbing the remote to pause the video so she can look at Frost and me, "she did have an idea who you are, Jane, but she told the truth about not being sure and about fainting at the sight of blood, at least her own. Look at her facial muscles here, here and here." With those words, she points said muscles out to me, but all I see is a tiny bit of movement under the skin, so I just nod, figuring that Maura knows what she's talking about.

"Also, I doubt she would be strong enough to saw off someone's head", Maura now goes on, making me look at her again, "and the fact that she reacted by emptying her stomach when she realized she was a suspect for murder, well…"

"That was the first time I saw someone puke at the thought", I let her know, now looking at the TV screen again, "but yeah, I agree, I don't think it was her, either."

"Most likely an unlucky coincidence that she hacked the database right when we're looking for a killer who did just that", Frost mumbles, sounding slightly peeved, but before I can ask him why, he goes on and explains the reason for his dismay. "And that means we're back to square one and still have no idea who did it."

"I still don't like the thought that the guy might be one of us", I say with a sigh, and in response, Maura grasps my hand and gives it a reassuring squeeze; I notice that Frost notices, but he doesn't make a comment, he just nods his agreement to what I said.

"Especially because he'll know about our progress", he then says, and makes us both look at him, "and once we get close to him, he'll know that, too. Who knows how he might react then… Or how he might react to certain, other developments."

I don't have to ask him what he means, but since Maura has no idea about the little talk I had with him, she looks quite puzzled, and when she asks him what he means, he obviously gets uncomfortable. Serves him right.

"Um, w-well, Dr. Isles", he stutters, not even able to look at me, man, so much about this being none of his business, "if he thinks that you and Jane, well… you know…"

He falls silent and gives me a pleading look, and even though he doesn't deserve it, I decide to help him out, even though I'll have to confirm his speculations, and that after I managed to avoid that so well in the car, dammit.

"He figured it out", I tell Maura, making her look at me with slight surprise on her face now, "don't ask me how, I have no idea either."

"Oh", she finally gets what he's talking about, "and now you worry that, if the perpetrator is one of us, he might notice too and that jealousy might make him attack Jane or me?"

"Yes, exactly", Frost sighs, clearly happy that Maura spelled it out for him so nicely; now that I heard that possibility out loud, I suddenly worry about as well, not about me, I can protect myself… well, most of the time… but about Maura.

"I like that thought even less than the idea that he really is one of us", I thus say, and clearly, Maura can hear the worry in my voice, because she gives me that cute concerned look she always gets when something upsets me.

"We already agree on the fact that he's not exactly mentally stable", I go on, making Frost nod, "so what if he notices, too, and decides that he has to get rid of you, Maura?"

"Well, that depends", Maura gives back, squeezing my hand reassuringly once more, "on if there is a realistic chance for him to notice. Yes, I know you did, Detective Frost, but don't forget how close you are to Jane and me, you work with us everyday. He doesn't need to be part of the homicide unit to look at the files to find his victims, and so, he's not necessarily as close to us as you or Vince are… So, the change in our relationship might go unnoticed by him."

"If only we had the tiniest idea who he is!" I grumble in frustration, running my free hand through my hair while I look at the paused image of Rendell again. "There are too many people who have access to that database", I go on, "all the officers, the people in homicide, the lab technicians… How are we supposed to narrow it down? Make them all saw off a head so we see who has the strength and who doesn't?"

"I don't think that would be a wise idea", Maura replies before Frost can say anything, once more oblivious to my sarcasm, man, we really need to work on that, "and also, there aren't enough corpses for all the people you just… Oh. That wasn't a serious question, was it?"

"No", I let her know, rolling my eyes, "of course not. I know we can't do that. But right now, I can't think of anything else, and I hate the thought of just sitting around, waiting for something to happen."

"This would be easier if we could see who accessed the files of our victims before they were killed", Frost sighs, "but for some idiotic reason, our logins don't leave a fingerprint if you just look at the files and don't change anything…"

He trails off and frowns to himself, then looks at the screen again, and from the expression on his face, I can tell that something's coming up in his mind, I know him well enough by now to figure that out simply by looking at him.

"What?" I wanna know, leaning forward a bit, noticing how Maura picked something up as well, since she now looks at him too; he shrugs, then gestures at the TV, at the frozen image of Rendell.

"Our system doesn't show those fingerprints", he then explains, "but maybe she can make it do that. She's good, you know, even though she messed up at hiding her IP."

"I don't think Lieutenant Cavanaugh will like the idea of letting some random hacker fool around with our database", I point out, "but it's worth a try, and maybe we can bribe her into doing it by promising her exemption from punishment for the hack if she does it."

"You already told her you wouldn't prosecute her for that", Maura reminds me, then raises an eyebrow when Frost and I smirk at each other.

"Yeah, we won't, but we're homicide, so it's not our case anyway", I then point the flaw of our little promise out to her, "but the correct department might. Unless she helps us."

"This sounds a bit like blackmail, which I'm not fond of", Maura lets us both know, "but, on the other hand, the thought of being targeted by our perpetrator is even less appealing, so I suggest you go for it."

"I'll go talk to Cavanaugh then", I decide, "he'll have to agree once he hears all the facts, and right now, that's our only shot at catching that guy."

"_All_ the facts?" Frost tries to tease, and I give him a withering glare; he clears his throat and raises his hands in an apologetic gesture, and I'm glad he backs off, since he just coughs again, but doesn't say anything else, only nodding when I tell him to keep his mouth shut about what he just learned before I go to talk to Cavanaugh and Maura returns to the morgue, even though I don't like the thought of her being alone down there, not as long as that psycho is still free and might get the same clue about the change in our relationship Frost had.


	10. Chapter 10

It takes me almost half an hour, but finally, Cavanaugh gives in and agrees to bring Rendell back so she can do whatever she does and maybe find out who's been accessing the files of the two victims before they were killed; and now that Frost knows about Maura and me, we doesn't even try to make up some reason about her coming along, she simply tells him that she wants to and he just shrugs, obviously not caring. I guess we can be glad he handles this so easily, I never would have thought of him as homophobic, but people often tend to have nasty surprises in store when they are confronted with such a… thing in their immediate vicinity.

To my amusement, this time, there's no squabble between Maura and him about who sits where in the car; he just gets into the backseat without comment, and I briefly wonder if he expects us to cuddle and kiss in front of him now, then I shrug it off while I start the engine and drive out of the garage, hoping that Rendell went right back home after we told her she can go.

Since I'm focusing on the road, I'm not starting any small talk, and neither are Frost or Maura; so, we drive there silently, until we arrive at the apartment building and I just have to mutter a curse because there's no parking lot in sight, we really chose a bad time to come here now – all the people living there apparently just came home from work and took all the spaces that were free when he came here for the first time.

It seems to take forever until I finally find a parking lot, but a quick glance shows me it was just fifteen minutes; since the car now is parked around the corner, at the end of the dead alley there, it takes us another five to walk back to the apartment building, and that makes me break the silence because I just have to grumble about that.

"That was to be expected", Maura tells me, ever the logical and reasonable one, "after all, we arrived here just as rush hour ended."

"I know that", I say, rolling my eyes, "but that doesn't mean it doesn't annoy me."

"Better not let that annoyance show towards Miss Rendell, or she might get scared", Maura advises with a slight smirk, "from her facial expression during the interrogation, I could tell that she was quite intimidated by you."

"She better be, that'll make her agree faster", I grumble, and Frost lets out a snort that sounds like an agreement, that takes some of my annoyance away and I smirk at him before we all enter the building and climb the stairs to the second floor.

This time, it's me who rings the bell, but to my dismay, the apartment behind the door is silent now, no sounds of shouting or shooting coming from it; that means that Rendell isn't playing her weird game, but she could be at home anyway, so I ring the bell again, and longer this time, frowning when no answer comes.

"Seems like she's not home", Frost comments behind me, "maybe she wanted to get a drink after that traumatic, intimidating experience she had with you."

I let out some non-committal noise to that, I know that what he said sounds reasonable, but something tells me that this isn't the reason for the silence behind that wooden door.

"Miss Rendell?" I try another approach, leaning closer to the door, "it's Detective Jane Rizzoli again, there's something we need to talk about. Are you there? If you—" Maura grabbing my arm makes me fall silent, and I look at her in surprise; she puts a finger to her lips, then leans closer to the door as well, much closer than me though, so close that her ear is pressed against the wood.

"Miss Rendell?" she calls out, and I have a second to wonder what is going through her mind – and then I hear what she must have heard, the weak, barely audible groan coming from inside the apartment.

"Shit!" I curse, at no one in particular, and step back from the door, pulling Maura with me, then giving Frost a look that hopefully makes it quite clear what I want from him; luckily, he catches on quickly and kicks the door, the wood giving in after the second try and the door flying open as it splinters to bits around the lock.

The moment the door is open, I'm pushing past Frost, with Maura right behind me; and thanks to the lack of size of the apartment, I can spot Rendell immediately, she's on the living room floor, next to her overthrown chair, and, oh God, there's so much blood, I can't even tell where it's coming from.

Even though that is quite the shocking sight, I don't let it make me hesitate, not even for a second; and neither does Maura as she rushes forward with me, Frost behind us, and kneels down next to the fallen woman, her eyes flickering back and forth for a few moments until she locates the source of the blood and looks up at me again.

The look in her eyes is enough to tell me that it's bad, but we both know it would be bad to say that as long as Rendell is actually still conscious and can hear us; and so, I lower myself on one knee close to her head and grasp Rendell's hand, giving my best to sound confident and soothing as I speak up while, with my body blocking the poor woman's sight on her, Maura takes off her jacket and tears off a piece, then another, making me realize that there's more than one wound.

"It's okay, you'll be okay", I try to give Rendell some reassurance, "Maura here, she's a doctor, she'll make sure you stay here with us until the ambulance arrives." Luckily, I can hear Frost on the phone behind me, requesting the ambulance I'm talking about; then, the woman's fingers tighten on mine with surprising strength, and she looks at me, her eyes wide and full of pain, but stunningly clear.

Her lips begin to move, and blood trickles from the corners of her mouth and runs down her cheeks; it takes me a second to figure out what is going on, but then I realize she wants to tell me something and lean down, bringing my ear as close as possible to her lips.

"…something", she whispers, and even though I hardly know her, it pains me to hear how weak and full of pain her voice sounds, but I sense that what she has to say is important, maybe just to her, but she deserves to be heard, especially if this was done by who I think is responsible.

"Sweetie, you need to repeat that", I tell her, giving my best to sound soothing and not as if it's a reproach, "I couldn't understand you…"

"…tell you something", she tries again, it strains her to talk and I want to tell her to stop, but the look Maura gave me was clear enough – as much as it hurts to admit it, we might not get another chance to talk to her.

"What?" I thus try to cajole the words out of her, and finally, after taking in a few shuddery breaths, she talks on, and my heartbeat speeds up and I gasp, prompting Maura to look at me again, her hands still pressing the pieces of cloth on the wound, trying to stop the bleeding.

"He's watching", Rendell presses out, now sounding as if she's close to passing out, "you… don't try to…" Her eyes roll back into her head and she passes out, and I close my eyes for a moment, a mixture of rage and pain filling me as I figure out what she just told me.

"Jane?" Maura's voice distracts me from that, full of concern, "what did she tell you?"

"It was him", I say in reply, not even looking at her, but still focused on Rendell's dreadfully pale face, the brightly red blood on her cheeks and throat forming a sharp contrast to the white skin, "this is a message to me… He left it with her after he… He's watching, me, or us, or all of us, I don't know, and he wants us to stop trying to find him."

"How dreadful, that poor woman", Maura says, now looking at the unconscious woman as well, "and all because…" "…because we brought her in for questioning, even though we should have known right away it wasn't her", I finish for her, my hands clenching into fists at that crucial mistake. "I mean, just look at her! As if she could saw off a head! Really? And now he got her and…"

"It's not your fault", Maura interrupts me before I can say it, man, she really knows me well by now, immediately knowing that I'm convinced of the exact opposite. "Taking her along was the right thing to do according to our guidelines", she goes on when I finally do look at her, "and you couldn't know that this would happen."

"Dr. Isles is right", Frost adds his two cents, "how was any of us supposed to know he'd attack someone we just brought in for questioning? That guy's too insane, we could never figure something like that out."

"Yeah, whatever", I mumble, looking at the still body of Rendell again, "but if he thinks I'll listen to this, he doesn't know me well, crush on me or not. What he did to that poor woman only makes me more eager to find him, and I will, no matter if she'll be… able to help us or not." I look at Rendell again, I know she can't hear me, but that doesn't stop me from talking to her, ignoring both Maura and Frost for the moment, all my attention is focused on this poor woman who got dragged into something she had nothing to do with, just because of a stupid timing coincidence about her hack.

"You hear me?" I mumble, and I feel Maura move closer to me and put one hand on my back, I hope she made Frost push down the pieces of cloth, "we'll find the man who did this to you, and put him behind bars. I promise." I feel Maura's hand move from my back to my shoulder and give it a reassuring squeeze; and after a moment, I don't care about Frost being there anymore or about the ambulance men who now arrive and rush into the room, I reach up and place my hand on hers and look at her, and I can see it in her eyes that she'll work just as hard at catching this man as I'm going to, and it calms me down more than any words could have right now.

* * *

><p>After Rendell has been loaded into the ambulance and taken to the hospital, I don't have the nerve anymore to go back to the precinct, so I tell Frost I'll head home; he just nods, reminding me of the fact that it's quite late by now anyway and letting me know that he'll just add this incident to the file and then will go home as well.<p>

"I'll come with you", Maura lets me know while we walk to the car, just the two of us, Frost will take a cab back to the precinct, "you shouldn't be alone after this… If it's alright, of course, I don't want to obtrude…"

"You're not", I tell her, to anyone else, the answer would have been different – and much ruder – but it's Maura, and I want her with me, especially after that gruesome message I received through poor Rendell.

"And I want you around", I thus add, taking her hand and pulling her closer, I know we're on the sidewalk and anyone can see us, but I don't care, "I don't…" I trail off, even with her, it's so hard to admit weakness, it always has been for me and I'm not sure if this ever will change, not even when it's Maura, not even when she means so much to me.

"I know", she tells me, in a low, sincere voice, then pulls me down for a quick, but tender kiss; and then, we both get into the car and drive to my place, I'm in no mood to face Ma tonight, all I want is to sit down on the couch and cuddle with Maura until all the pain and the bad feelings and the guilt goes away, even though deep inside, I know that not even all the cuddling in the world with Maura will accomplish that, not as long as we don't know if our killer's latest victim will live or die.


	11. Chapter 11

The moment we enter my apartment, Maura tells me to sit down on the couch and relax, knowing very well that this is just what I need now; I obey gladly, making myself comfortable and switching on the TV after a few moments of just sitting there while I can hear that Maura starts making dinner in the kitchen.

The sounds she makes as she moves around and readies something reminds me of the fact that I haven't had lunch and even though it feels horrible to think of food after what happened not all too long ago, my stomach grumbles audibly, clearly not as perturbed by Rendell's fate as I am.

Even though I try to watch the channel that came on when I switched on the TV, I can't stop thinking about that poor woman; I told the hospital to call me as soon as she'd be out of the ER, and that thought makes me check my phone to make sure it's on and I won't miss any calls. Of course, it's on, just as it should be, and I put it on the table after another look; then my gaze wanders back to the TV, but still I can't focus on that, I keep seeing Rendell in front of my inner eye, how pale she was and all that blood…

On the way here, Maura told me what she didn't want to stay in front of the poor woman, namely that she'd been stabbed in the chest and stomach; she couldn't tell how deep the wounds were, but the fact that Rendell coughed up blood when she tried to talk makes it quite obvious how badly she was hurt.

"You're still blaming yourself, aren't you", Maura's voice comes from my right and makes me jump, and only now I realize how much time passed while I sat there staring into nothingness – the food's already done, pasta with a light sauce of tomatoes and some sort of greenish herb steaming on the two plates Maura's holding.

"Yes", I admit, knowing it won't do any good to lie – Maura knows me well enough so she'd be able to tell, and I also have to admit that it feels good when she puts down the plates and sits down next to me to pull me into a comforting embrace.

"I won't tell you that it's no good to blame yourself, because I know it won't help", she now tells me, holding me close, my head resting comfortably on her shoulder, "so I'll just try to offer comfort in any other way I can."

"Thanks", I say sincerely, "and you know I'll be fine after a while… Especially if they call me and tell me she'll be okay. Man, the poor woman…"

"I'm quite sure we got there rather shortly after the attack, so her chances are good", Maura let's me know as an answer, and that makes me perk up, one of my eyebrows wandering up while I sit up slightly so I can look at her and ask her why she'd think that.

"The bleeding", she explains, "if we'd arrived later, much more blood would have seeped out of the wounds and she most likely would have bled out."

"Oh", is all I can say to that, my mind picking up speed again – if our perp just attacked her because she was at the precinct, it won't help, but if he heard that we want her to help us… That would mean though that he's been within earshot when we talked about that, either when Frost and I discussed it or when I spoke to Cavanaugh, and the thought of that deranged man being so close to me is quite unsettling.

I voice those thoughts to Maura, and to my dismay, she just shrugs after a moment, then points out that it's impossible to tell the killer's motivation for the attack on Rendell and that she refuses to guess; before I can vocalize my dismay about that though, she pushes the plate of paste into my hands and orders me to eat, remembering perfectly well that I had no lunch and telling me that I need the energy.

"Only you are allowed to order me around like that", I tell her while I accept the plate and pick up the fork she already put into it; even though it didn't take long to prepare, it's surprisingly good, and the first bite makes my stomach grumble loudly again, prompting Maura to raise an eyebrow.

"Obviously, it's good I ordered you around", she then tells me, "because those noises are only produced by the stomach once it's fully empty, they're caused by the contraction of the muscles."

"For the record, I already knew that", I tell her between two forkfuls of food; she smiles at me, and for the next ten minutes, we're both quiet as we focus on eating, cleaning our plates with surprising speed – I'm not surprised at my own tempo of munching down the food, seeing I didn't have lunch, but it startles me a bit that Maura eats so fast, too.

"You know", I thus tell her once I cleared my plate and put it on the table, and hers just follows a minute later, just as empty as mine, "you don't have to match my eating speed, there's a reason Ma used to call me the power shovel when I was younger."

"She did?" Maura demands to know, an amused twinkle in her beautiful eyes, "that's not very kind. And, as you just said, for the record, I was quite hungry as well, you surely remember that I didn't finish my lunch because I comforted you and tried to take away your doubts about any special vibe you might give off to attract deranged sociopathic killers."

"Oh, yeah", I grimace, now feeling bad about keeping my… about keeping Maura from eating, "sorry about that…"

"There's nothing to be sorry for", Maura reassures me, "giving each other support whenever needed is what's part of… all kinds of relationships." Again, I have time to wonder if not putting a label on what we have now was a good idea; before I can voice those thoughts though, the doorbell rings, and I let out an annoyed groan, a visitor is really the last thing I need now.

"Dammit", I thus grumble to myself while I get up from the couch and head over to the door; I pull it open quite harshly, and my annoyance reaches new heights when no one's there, what is this, some sort of stupid ding-dong ditch? Then, something, maybe some feeling in my gut, makes me look down, and my breath gets caught in my throat and my eyes widen when I spot the cardboard box sitting on my welcome mat, and somehow, I already know what's in it before I open it.

"Maura", I manage to say, and something in my voice must have alarmed her because she gets over very quickly and moves to my side, looking concerned; before I can point the box out to her, she spots it on her own, and I can hear how her breath momentarily hitches, as well.

"Don't touch it", she then quickly regains her composure, "I'll go down to the car and get my—"

"No!" I interrupt her, grabbing her arm to make sure she won't run off, "what if he's still around and attacks you? Let's go together…"

To my relief, she just nods; for a moment, I feel like running downstairs and looking around to see if maybe, I can spot him, but I know it'd be a waste of time, there are still too many people on the street to be sure who he is, and if he's smart, he parked his car as close as possible and by now is on the road again, driving to wherever he's living or hiding out or whatever.

"Come on", Maura now urges me on, already stepping into her shoes and prompting me to dot the same, "let's not waste any time."

"I wonder what those guys watching my place are good for, if they don't notice someone carrying a cardboard box like the ones we received earlier entering my place", I grumble to myself while I head downstairs with Maura by my side; she just shrugs, glancing briefly at the police car parked on the other side of the street before she makes her way to my car and opens the trunk, where she keeps one of her kits.

"Wait", I say as soon as she grabbed the black leather bag and closed the trunk again, "I'll go talk to those guys, maybe they did see something. I'll be right back."

"I'll come with you", she replies, now looking around nervously, apparently, some of my fears about her getting attacked rubbed off on her; I feel bad again for scaring her, but nod nevertheless, it probably is smart of her to stay close to me as long as we don't know if she might be a target, as well. I'd never forgive myself if something happened to her… I feel her grasp my hand, as if she sensed my dismay or even read my thoughts, and I squeeze it tenderly before we hurry over to the police car, the cop behind the steering wheel sitting up straight when he sees us approach, and I don't even care if he notices that we're holding hands while he rolls down the window so he can talk to us.

"Detective Rizzoli", he greets me, at least he knows who the person he's supposed to protect is, "can I help you…?"

"Did you notice anyone carrying a cardboard box during the day?" I want to know, realizing that the fact that it just was put down in front of my door doesn't mean he just came here, he might as well have gone here right after attacking Rendell, to make sure we wouldn't accidentally run into him.

"No", he let's me know, not surprising me; letting out a heavy breath, I step back from the car and run one hand through my hair while Maura moves closer to the window, apparently having a thought of her own, making me smile slightly moments later when she voices it to the two cops. "And someone with a backpack?"

"Well, a few people", the cop in the passenger seat now is the one to answer, "men and women alike. But we didn't see anything suspicious, Doctor, or we would have informed the detective."

"Keep an eye out", I tell them, even though I doubt he'll show up again anytime soon – he already took a great risk delivering one box, and bringing a second one would be even riskier. On the other hand, he's not all too mentally stable, as we figured out by now, so maybe he won't even be able to figure that risk out…

"Of course, detective", the cop behind the steering wheel tells me, smiling what he probably thinks is a charming smile at me; I don't return it, but Maura does, and then we turn away from the car, still holding hands, and hurry back upstairs into my apartment, to take a closer look at the present I just received.

* * *

><p>Since she doesn't want to touch the duct tape that was used to seal the box shut, Maura uses one of my kitchen knives to cut it open; by now, we're both wearing the blue latex gloves that will keep us from leaving any fingerprints, and neither of us is surprised when she opens the box after she got rid of the tape and the head stares up at us, once again with a dark red rose in the mouth and a card tied to the flower's stem.<p>

"I'll call the guys", I tell Maura while she carefully grasps the rose and takes it out so she can look at the card; she nods distractedly, already focused on the few words that have been written on it, and I peer over her shoulder to read it too while I wait for Korsak to take my call.

_Don't try to find me, Jane._

_We will meet once this is over._

_Until then – patience is a virtue. _

_With love_

_The Sandman_

"He really doesn't know me well if he thinks I'll just sit around and wait for him to get done with his list", I mutter to myself, then Korsak takes the call and I quickly tell him what happened; he sounds shocked when he answers and lets me know that he'll inform Cavanaugh, asking me if I'll call Frost.

"Right away", I reassure him, then end the call; before I can contact Frost though, my phone rings, and the display tells me it's the hospital, my heart suddenly beating up to my throat again as I realize why they are calling.

"Rizzoli", I take the call, giving my best to sound steady and confident; the nurse on the other end of the line doesn't use many words to give me the information I've been waiting for, and I thank her before I hang up and briefly close my eyes, taking in a deep breath, prompting Maura put her free hand on my back again, concern in her voice when she asks if I'm okay.

"Yes", I tell her after another deep breath, "that was the hospital… Rendell's still critical, but they are quite sure she'll make it." In response to that, Maura smiles, and after a moment, I return the smile; then, I regain my composure and quickly call Frost, informing him what happened about as well before I put my phone down and start waiting for Korsak and him to arrive, my gaze drifting back to the head again and again, my mind running wild as I try to figure out how to find this man and how to stop him.


	12. Chapter 12

Author's Note: Due to the fact that tomorrow, I won't be able to update because I'll be going to a concert right after work, I decided to post the next chapter today instead of on Thursday. Enjoy! :)

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><p>"Cavanaugh is throwing a fit", are the words Frost greets me with when he enters with Korsak in tow, making me raise an eyebrow, and he quickly hurries to explain why exactly our Lieutenant is doing that. "He says that opening the box was too risky and that it should have gone through our safety measures first."<p>

"He made a good point", Maura agrees behind me, without looking up from the head, luckily, it's still in the box so Frost can't see it or he'd probably puke all over my carpet, "but it is doubtful that this man would send anything else than a head to Jane. He admires her, he doesn't want to kill her."

"And he plans to reveal himself to me as soon as he got done with whatever job he thinks he's doing", I add, holding out the card to Frost so he can read it; he's smart enough to not make a grab for it, since he's not wearing gloves, but simply bends forward a bit, frowning as he reads the few, short lines.

"I'll get a list of all the unsolved cases you worked on", he says the moment he finished reading, looking at me again while I carefully put the card back into the box, "so we can warn the suspects from back then about the danger they might be in."

"Good thinking", I compliment him, and he smiles, "there can't be too many left, most of my cases did get solved, but we should warn those who are still around. Who knows what he might do once he's finished his to-do-list and decides it's time to meet."

"No one can know", Maura tells me, still focused on the head, even though by now, I wonder why she's so keen on studying it here, where she can't do much, "but somehow, I doubt that he will just show up with flowers and ask you if you want to go out with him."

"And you'd have to tell him off, now that you're taken", Frost smirks, only to fall silent a second later, his eyes growing wide as he realizes what he just said – and that Korsak is standing right next to him, giving him a surprised look before he focuses on me, raising an eyebrow while I fight down the urge to jump Frost and strangle him. So much about keeping this to himself! What a ditz!

"Interesting", Korsak now starts, and I gulp as I prepare myself for the bombardment with questions that surely will follow now, "so the doc and you finally figured it out?"

Wait, what?

"What?" Maura and I say in perfect unison, and for the first time since the two arrived, Maura actually looks up from the head, looking as stunned as I'm feeling. Chuckling, Korsak shakes his head, an amused twinkle in his eyes when he goes on, and his words blow all worries I've had about how the two colleagues closest to me might react to those news away.

"Come on, it was just a matter of time", he says, "we all knew it just had to happen sooner or later. Frost and I actually were considering to bet on how much longer it would take you."

"Hey, if we'd done that, I would've won", Frost realizes, "that would have been twenty extra bucks." He finally notices the glare I've been sending his way and shuts up, smiling sheepishly at me; I just shake my head, then look at Maura and ask her if she wants to take the head to the morgue right now so it can be cooled and will be ready for her to work on in the next morning, deciding to ignore Korsak, Frost and their stupid ideas about bets for now.

"I don't want it rotting away in here", I add, just to make sure she won't get any ideas, "and there's no way in Hell I put this thing in my fridge."

"It wouldn't contaminate your food if it remains in the box", Maura feels the need to tell me why it wouldn't be a problem to keep a severed head in the same fridge I store my food in, "but I understand your discomfort about it, so, yes, I'll take it to the morgue right away. I wouldn't want to make you uncomfortable by keeping this here until tomorrow."

"That's too kind of you", I deadpan, and Korsak rolls his eyes, then leans closer to Frost, not really succeeding with keeping his voice down though since I can hear every word he's saying. "So much like an old couple, it's ridiculous."

"Don't worry, Vince", I reply, now sounding as sweet as possible, and immediately, he makes an alarmed face, he's heard that tone before and knows it never means something good, "I'm sure you and Barry will get there too, someday."

"Jane", Maura gently scolds while Korsak gasps and Frost just stares; I give them another smirk, then pick up the box and tell them I'll get it into my car, making sure to close the cardboard folds so anyone I'll maybe run into on the hallway won't see that I'm carrying around a severed head.

Still shaking her head about what I said to the two men, Maura follows me outside, and after a moment, Frost and Korsak get over their shocked paralysis and do the same; we head downstairs, and there we split, since their cars aren't parked right next to mine, reassuring me that they'll meet me at the morgue before both Maura and I get into my car and I hand the cardboard box to her so I can drive, on the way to the precinct just another minute later.

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><p>"Are you feeling a bit better now?" Maura asks after we just drove along in silence for a while, and I have no idea what I should feel better about, so I give her a questioning, but short look before I concentrate on the traffic again, luckily it was enough to make her elaborate. "About the guys knowing about the change in our relationship. Obviously, they're fine with it."<p>

"Obviously, they were busying themselves with it before the change even happened", I point out to her in reply, "but, yeah, I do feel a bit better." She smiles at me in reply and reaches over, again putting her hand on her upper leg, a hint of mischief in her voice when she speaks up again. "Does that mean I can kiss you in front of them now if I want to?"

"…sure", I reply after just a second of hesitation, but it was long enough to let her notice, since she sounds concerned now, and I bet if I'd look at her – I don't, though, traffic and all – I'd see the same emotion on her face. "Are you really sure? Again, I wouldn't want to make you uncomfortable in any way, and if you're not fully fine with showing affection in front of the guys…"

"I don't know", I finally admit with a sigh, "you know I'm… not the type for that…"

"You are quite affectionate when we are alone", Maura lets me know, and even though I'm still not fully comfortable, I can't help, but just have to smile, and when I now look at her briefly again, she's smiling back at me.

"I understand though why you are not fully comfortable with showing this side of you in public", she goes on, and I just have the time to realize that she's going into Google mode before she does just that. "Already when I met you for the first time, I noticed that you're very keen on keeping up the image you've built of yourself to the world around you. It's the image of a tough cop, and tough cops don't show affection in public, so now, you are afraid that by doing so, that image might be destroyed, and you're dreading the possible consequences."

"Thanks, Dr. Freud", I reply sarcastically, but she doesn't let that bother her, just smiling at me again, her Googlemouth still running when she replies. "Dr. Freud was very important for the development of psychoanalysis, but by now, several of his theories are viewed as outdated and incorrect."

"Good to know", I grumble, and for some reason, she takes that easily as well, sounding not perturbed at all when she replies. "Reacting with sarcasm to unpleasant truths or facts is one of your characteristics, Jane, so you won't manage to change the topic that way. If you do want to change the topic though, just say so and I'll bop it."

"That's called drop it, Maura", I automatically correct her, "and yes, I'd be thankful if we could drop it. For now."

"Of course", she immediately gives back, then pats my leg a few times; I smile at her again, I just can't help it when she's acting so cute, then I realize how close we are to the precinct by now and quickly find us a parking lot.

"Make sure no one sees the head", I advise Maura, and the look she gives me practically says "Really?", even though that's my patented reaction to anything where it's suitable; then, she puts the cardboard flaps down once more with an exaggerated gesture, and I mutter "Fine, alright, I knew you'd do that anyway", before we walk into the precinct together and head downstairs to the morgue.

There, Maura immediately takes the head out of the box and then, to my surprise, puts it on the autopsy table instead of in the fridge; I don't make a comment though, just watch how she puts on fresh gloves and throws the one she's been wearing until now into the trash.

"You're gonna examine it right now?" I finally ask when she carefully takes hold of the head and turns it so she can look at the damage that was done at the neck when it was removed from the body; she nods, then looks up at me, quickly explaining that decision to me.

"Once Detective Frost and Vince arrive here, they'll want to take pictures, so I can just as well past the time until then by examining this", she lets me know, and I have to admit that this makes sense, so I nod, then move closer to her, figuring that at this time, no one else is around to watch us, so I put one hand on her back, smiling when she momentarily leans into the touch before she focuses on her work again.

"The wounds are matching the ones of the other two heads", she tells me after just two minutes of looking, "which indicates that it was done with the same tool. I wonder how long a handsaw stays sharp enough to be used for that, or if he replaced them by now."

"How am I supposed to know?" I want to know, looking at the wounds as well and once more hoping that he gets them stoned enough so they won't feel what he's doing to them, from the torn and ragged look of the cuts, that must have hurt like Hell, "I've never sawed off anyone's head before. I only sawed wood, as you should with those tools."

"I'd like to see you saw wood some day", Maura comments, briefly looking up at me and winking, "I'm sure that it is an amazing sight."

"Um, okay, if you say so", I reply, not sure what would be so amazing about watching me saw wood; before I can ask her though, the door behind us opens, and we both jump before we turn around, somehow, I manage to keep my hand on her back during that movement.

"Warren", Maura says in surprise, looking at the young lab technician who just entered, it's kinda adorable how he blushes when he notices us, he clearly was quite caught up in that stack of papers he's holding, "you're still here, I see. Doing overtime?"

"Yes, Dr. Isles", he finds his voice after a moment, man, are all the lab techs here so shy and uptight? At first the Craig guy with his blushing and mumbling, and now this.

"I wanted to finish this", Warren adds, holding up the stack of papers, "but I'm almost done… just wanted to double-check something in here…"

"Oh, don't let us keep you from doing so", Maura tells him, smiling nicely at him in an obviously vain attempt to calm him down, "we're just waiting for Detective Frost and Detective Korsak to arrive so they can photograph this head." And then, oh my God, I can't believe she's doing this, she's holding the head up, and the poor guy pales and looks as if he's about to puke.

"Maura", I quickly say, moving in front of her so the view on the head is blocked – lab techs shouldn't be so squeamish, but on the other hand, they hardly ever come in direct contact with the corpses, only with the blood and other stuff Maura takes from them, "why don't we go back to work and let Warren do the same?"

"Of course, Jane", she agrees immediately, putting the head back down; I hear how Warren lets out a heavy breath behind me, then he goes to check whatever it was that he wanted to check while Maura and I focus on the head again, Maura busying herself with examining it while I watch her work until Frost and Korsak finally arrive to take the pictures so everything is ready to get started immediately next morning.


	13. Chapter 13

Almost two hours have passed since we took the head down to the morgue; after the pictures have been taken, Maura wanted to extract all possible samples from it, and by the time she finally had gotten done, I'd nearly fallen asleep in the chair in her office, only realizing when she woke me up how long and tiring that day already had been. Thanks to my obvious tiredness, she had insisted on driving back, and for once, I let her without protest – it really would have been too dangerous to drive myself, considering how tired all of today's action had made me.

Now, finally, we're back at Maura's place – after the head has been delivered to my home, I didn't really want to go back there – and I'm already lying in bed, fighting to stay awake while I listen to Maura rummage around in the bathroom, man, what is taking her so long in there, it's not like she has to get ready for meeting someone or something.

"What is taking you so long?" I call out after another five minutes tick by, and instead of answering my question, she calls back that she'll be there in a minute; since I have nothing better to do, I count the seconds until she finally does join me, and once she's in bed next to me, I tell her that it actually took her one minute and forty-six seconds.

"Almost two minutes", I do the math for her, too, and she raises an eyebrow at me, a slight smirk tugging at the corners of her mouth when she replies. "Normally, I'm the literal one. What happened?"

"Nothing", I shrug, "I was just bored…" Her smirk widens at hearing that, then she moves closer to me, and I almost automatically pull her into an embrace, I still can't believe how good it feels to hold her so close, after all that time I was secretly longing to do just that. Clearly, Maura enjoys it as well, since she lets out a small, content sigh, then moves one hand to draw lazy circles on my chest with her index finger, and I can hear it through her voice how relaxed she feels when she speaks up again, her words momentarily startling me, since it seems again as if she's reading my mind.

"You know", she starts, "I've been dreaming about you holding me so close for a while, I'm very glad we can finally enjoy this now…"

"So am I", I reassure her, then smirk as a thought hits me. "Remember that day in nasty Giovanni's garage?" I go on, and from the giggle that escapes her, I can tell that she does. "It cost me a lot of willpower to pull back from that embrace."

"I imagine", she lets me know, propping herself up one elbow so she can look at me easier, "it was quite distressing for me, too. Not to mention the fact that you made me shiver by how you called me 'Babe', both times."

"Really, babe?" I tease, giving my best to put that certain tone in my voice again, the deep, throaty sound I managed somehow back then; apparently, I'm doing a good job, since Maura flushes visibly, then clears her throat, her eyes sparkling when she responds by leaning down to kiss me, the kiss quickly deepening. Again, I'm amazed at how good it feels to kiss her, how it makes my heart race and my breath quicken; I have a moment to wonder if I'll ever get enough of kissing her, then my mind is blown, and all I can focus on is her, her sweet taste, her wonderful scent, the way her hair and skin feels beneath my fingers as I caress her.

"You're such an amazing kisser", Maura pants out after finally pulling back due to danger of running out of air, "this is better than I ever imagined."

"You imagined kissing me?" I tease in reply, this is too good to just let it pass without a remark; Maura just nods matter-of-factly, then smiles again, taking the time to snuggle up to me again before she replies. "Sure, and quite often, too. Daydreams are not very productive, but a normal thing to have when someone has a crush on another person."

"And that even though you said I wasn't your type", I have to remind her of those rude words, and again, she's all matter-of-factly when she answers that. "Well, back then, you weren't."

"Ouch", I grimace, maybe I shouldn't have brought that up, I mean, I know Maura can't lie, and I also know that she can be quite blunt at times, but I still didn't expect such a direct answer.

"True attraction develops over time, Jane", she goes on, obviously having noticed that her answer stung, "and even though I already was slightly attracted to you back then, it wasn't enough to declare you my type."

"Um, okay", is all I can say at first, I'm clearly too tired for that kind of talk, but there is something else I just have to add or I won't be able to sleep. "Well, just so you know, I was slightly attracted to you already too, back then."

"I know", Maura replies casually, and that really surprises me. What? She knew? Really?

"Really?" I want to know, and she nods, then smirks at me again, man, I just love those little playful and mischief smirks.

"I noticed how you looked at my cleavage when I was acting as a waitress in that bar, Jane", she then informs me, whoops, she wasn't supposed to notice that, but on the other hand, seeing how long I stared… "You wouldn't have looked like that if you hadn't been at least a tiny bit attracted."

"And still you did nothing?" I demand to know, "you waited for me to take the first step?"

"Yes", Maura replies light-heartedly, "because I know you well enough to be aware of how you react to pressure, and I didn't want to put pressure on you by acting too fast or too rashly." Alright, I have to admit that this makes sense, and I tell her just that; she smiles and again says "I know", then lets out the cutest little yawn, aww… Man, Maura is the only one who can make me go "Aww", even if it's just in my thoughts.

"Let's get some sleep", I say, before my thoughts can get even mushier, "I have the feeling it'll be a long day tomorrow."

"Me too", Maura mumbles, then we kiss once more before we both make ourselves comfortable; and not long afterwards, she fell asleep in my arms, and I lie awake for a bit longer, holding her, breathing in her scent, until finally, my tiredness wins as well and I allow myself to drift off into slumber.

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><p>In the next morning, we drive to the precinct together, and already when I enter the bullpen, Cavanaugh is standing there, and from the way he looks at me, I can tell that he's still pissed off about how I handled the head situation. Uh-oh. Luckily, the night spent at Maura's and the morning was peaceful enough to put me in quite the good mood, so I guess I should be able to handle this – him – without getting majorly PO'ed, as well.<p>

"Rizzoli!" he barks the moment he sees me, "into my office, _now_!" Well, that's something, at least he's not gonna chew me out in front of everybody; I make myself smile nicely at him while I follow him, and the moment the door closed behind me, he's already glaring at me, but his next words kinda surprise me. "Are you so keen on getting yourself killed, Rizzoli?"

"What?" I manage to say after a second of shock, and he shakes his head, crossing his arms over his chest while he keeps trying to stare me down.

"At first that stunt with shooting through yourself, I kinda get why you did that, but it was reckless and stupid and dangerous", he goes on, wow, that's the first time he actually mentions that ever since I came back to duty and he just told me not to do it again, "but now, opening a box someone left in front of your door, while some sociopath is out to get you? It could have blown up into your face! What were you thinking, dammit?"

"He's not out to kill me", I point out to him, "he's in love with me. And the note explicitly said that he'll contact me once he got done with whatever list it is he thinks he has to work through, so I highly doubt he'll do anything until then."

"The note you only could read after you opened that box and endangered yourself, and Dr. Isles, on top of it", Cavanaugh reminds me of that little fact I purposefully left out, shaking his head again while he talks – and then his expression suddenly softens, and he surprises me again when he goes on.

"Listen, Rizzoli… Jane", he says, wow, he hardly ever addresses me with my first name, "I know you love the job, but I also know what toll it can take on one. And you're one of my best detectives in homicide, no, you're _the_ best – no one comes even close to your closure rate, and you _know_ that. But if you ever feel that it gets too much, take a day or two off, alright?" Wow, what has gotten into him, normally, we almost have to beg on our knees to get a day off, and he always wants to know why.

"Um, sure", I say, I really don't know what to think of this, "but I'm fine, Sir, and as I said, I have no reason to think that he's after me. Not now, at least. Maybe once he got done killing the people he wants dead."

"Just be more careful", Cavanaugh sighs, then dismisses me with a casual gesture of his hand; I still feel weird about this whole conversation when I walk back to the bullpen, I was sure he'd verbally mop the floor with me, but instead, he showed… concern? This is weird, I mean, I know he has our backs, as far as he can with all those politics he has to deal with, but as far as I remember, he never showed that worry for anyone else. I hope for him that it's not because I'm a woman, or I swear I'll kick him in the balls so hard he'll spit them out.

"Jane!" Frost calls out, distracting me from my ponderings, waving a piece of paper at his desk, "I finished the list. There are only four more people left, three men and one woman. You do know that you have an insane closure rate, right?"

"Well, I'm awesome, what can I say", I smirk, moving over to him and taking the paper from him; the names on the list ring just faint bells in the back of my mind, it's been quite some time since those cases were labelled as cold ones, the most recent case on the list being a bit older than a year.

"We should call them, and warn them", Frost suggests, and I nod my agreement, it might not help much, but at least they should know that someone might be after them.

"You do that", I tell him, checking my watch before I go on, "while I'll go to the hospital and talk to Rendell."

"Are you sure it's not too early for that?" Frost asks, sounding a bit concerned, "she just got attacked yesterday. Is she even stable yet?"

"As far as I know, yes", I give back, "and I know she just was attacked yesterday, I was there when we found her, remember? But maybe she saw something, remembers something, and we can't wait too long to get that information."

"Good point", he admits, "but go easy on her, alright? Don't intimidate her again, as Dr. Isles called it."

"Come on Barry", I protest, "you should know me better than that, I don't intimidate injured persons." To my dismay, he just smirks at me in reply; I take the time to give him a dirty look and hand back the list, then I head down to the morgue to ask Maura if she wants to come along – with her overactive brain, she often comes up with questions I might miss, not to mention that her ability to tell if someone is lying or not might come in handy, even though I'm not sure how well that works if she's right there and not viewing the person in question on a monitor where she can rewind if necessary.

When I arrive at the morgue, she's talking to the guy who brought the blood test results not all too long ago, the dude named Craig; the moment I enter though, he looks much more uncomfortable, mumbling some more words to Maura before he turns and hurries off, and I raise an eyebrow and give her a curious look. "Is he scared of me, or what?"

"Not exactly scared, no", Maura tells me, putting down the papers he had brought for her, "but, like so many others, intimidated. Is there something I can do for you, Jane?"

A lot of things, actually, but most of them wouldn't be appropriate here – not to mention the possible audience – so I just let that go and nod, then tell her I want her to come to the hospital with me; unlike Frost, she doesn't question my decision to go there right now, but just nods, then asks me to wait so she can get rid of the scrubs and the gloves, and not even two minutes later, she did just that and we head to my car, on our way to the hospital shortly afterwards.


	14. Chapter 14

At first, the doctor who's been assigned to Rendell tries to stop us from seeing her, explaining that she might not be critical anymore, but that her condition is still far from fine; once I flashed my badge at him though and explained that talking to her might give us information crucial for a case of triple homicide, he gives in and lets me enter, and immediately, I feel the guilt from the night before again when I see her.

As she lies there in the hospital bed, she looks even younger than she did when we first saw her, and much more vulnerable; her face is almost as white as the bedsheets, and her eyes are closed, but when I approach her, she opens them and looks at me, and to my surprise, she's aware enough of her surroundings to recognize me at once.

"Detective", she mumbles, and the weak sound of her voice makes me feel all bad and guilty again; still I smile at her as I walk over to the bed, then sit down next to it, giving my best to sound friendly and even a bit soothing when I ask her how she feels while Maura moves to stand behind me, placing one hand on my shoulder, obviously having noticed that seeing the hacker like this bothered me.

"Tired", the response comes after a moment, "but no pain, they've got some awesome stuff here. I'm doped."

"I know you should get some rest", I tell her in reply, smiling at her again, "but I hope you'll also understand that I have to ask you some questions…"

"Yeah", Rendell mutters, already sounding tired again, I hope she won't snooze off in the middle of our talk, "but if you wanna ask me what he looked like, I dunno. He was wearing a mask." Figures that he did, it would have been too easy if she could just have given us a perfect description of him now, after all. Dammit.

"What about his build?" I try to get some information anyway, "do you remember anything about that…?"

"Well, he was taller than me", Rendell mutters, and by now I can tell how hard she fights to keep her eyes open, "bit on the bulky side, not sure if it was muscle or fat… And he was fast, really, really fast…"

"Did you open the door for him, or did he break in?" I go on, not surprised when she tells me that she opened; her voice trembles a bit when she goes on, remembering how he pushed her back into the apartment and stabbed her the first time, then forced her to retreat into the living room, already bleeding heavily, and wounded her once more.

"We'll get this guy, I promise", I reassure her, and Maura makes some agreeing noise behind me before she moves closer, gaining Rendell's attention by saying her name.

"Do you remember anything else?" she asks as soon as she made the hacker look at her, "how did his voice sound? Was it deep or high-pitched? Did he use any unusual wordings?"

"Um, it was normal, I guess", Rendell answers, sounding a bit confused now, well, not that I can blame her, it was kind of a weird question, "and he didn't talk much, he only told me what I should say to Detective Rizzoli…" Saying my name again seems to remind her of something, since she frowns to herself, then focuses on me again, now sounding mildly curious despite her obvious exhaustion.

"What were you doing at my place again anyway?" she wants to know, "not that I'm not glad you found me and saved me, but I thought you were done questioning me…"

"We are", I reassure her, "we didn't come back to you to question you again, we wanted to ask for your help, but that's not important now…"

"No, tell me", she insists to my surprise, even sitting up a bit, only to grimace and slump back down; obviously, those great painkillers only help as long as she doesn't move around too much.

"That guy attacked me and tried to kill me", she goes on when both Maura and I just look at her in surprise, "so if I can help in any way, tell me now, so getting hurt at least was worth it."

I exchange a quick glance with Maura, and she nods, recognizing the woman's determination as clearly as I do; I have to say, I'm impressed, after all, Rendell was stabbed not even twenty-four hours ago, and already she wants to know how she can help us and what exactly we wanted when we came to her. Even if she really does faint at the sight of blood, I gotta admit that she's got guts.

"Well", I thus start explaining, "unfortunately, whoever programmed our database wasn't smart enough to realize we might to know some day who's checking which files, so if no changes are made to them, the logins don't leave any tracks, and Frost suggested that we ask you if you can find out somehow, he said you're good at that hacking stuff. Once we know who looked into the files of our victims, it'll get much easier to catch that guy, we're pretty sure it's one of us by now."

"If I really were that good, you wouldn't have been able to trace the IP back to me", Rendell points out to me, "but sure, I can give it a try. I'll need my laptop though and access to your database."

"That can be arranged", I reassure her, "oh, and of course, if you help us with that, the department responsible for that sort of thing won't go after you for the hacking."

"Figures", she mumbles, giving me a sour look; I just smile back at her, then get up from my seat and tell her that we'll take her laptop to the station so the access to the database can get set up and that afterwards, I'll bring it to her, and she nods, now clearly giving in to her tiredness, since a hearty yawn comes from her, her eyes almost slipping close as she struggles to stay awake and to keep looking at Maura and me.

"We'll be back later in the afternoon", I let her know, it won't take that long to get the laptop and grant it access to the database, but I want her to get some rest before she starts working on anything, "get some rest until then."

"Yes, Mom", she replies with a slightly mocking tone in her voice, and I have to hold back the urge to roll my eyes at her; Maura takes the time to thank her for her willingness to help before we leave together, stopping outside on the hallway after we closed the door leading to her room behind ourselves.

"We should have an officer or two positioned here", I ponder out loud, looking at the door, "just in case he decides to come back to finish the job."

"Yes, a good idea", Maura nods, "he might not know yet that she's still alive, but if he really is part of the police force, as we all fear by now, he will find out sooner or later, and her life might be in danger then."

While I nod, I already get out my phone and call Cavanaugh; I quickly explain that Rendell is willing to help and that I'll go and get her laptop from her place so the database access can be set up on it, then inform him about the potential danger she still might be in and request a pair of officers to stand guard in front of her door.

"They're on their way", he lets me know at once, "no one but Dr. Isles, her doctor and you will be allowed access to her room until this man has been put behind bars. And family members, of course, if they aren't part of the police force."

"Sounds good to me", I agree, then tell him we'll be at the precinct soon before I hang up; Maura gives me a questioning look, and I quickly fill her in about what Cavanaugh said to her idea, making her smile when she hears that two officers will be sent here to make sure no one tries to finish the job on the poor hacker.

"Let's go and get her laptop", I add, "I want her to start working on this as fast as possible, we need to catch this guy before he finishes off anyone else."

"It might also help with the recovery process", Maura ponders out loud while we walk down the hallway and to the hospital's exit together, "having such an active part in the capture of her assailant. Of course, should she fail, it might do more harm than good. The mind is a powerful thing, you know."

"I know, you gave me that lecture like twenty times when I was recovering after the shooting", I remind her, "and I still remember it all. If she's as good as Frost says, she should be able to do it, at least that's what Frost thinks."

"Keep in mind though that, due to the influence of the painkillers administrated by the hospital staff, her abilities might be affected negatively", Maura points out to me, "depending on how strong those painkillers are, they maybe make her dizzy or cloud her mind."

"She wasn't all too doped now", I remind her of the fact that we just had a pretty coherent conversation with the person in question, "but yeah, we'll see how it'll work out." Maura nods and smiles, then we reach my car and I dig out my keys to unlock it; before I can do so though, she suddenly steps closer to me, so close her body's nearly pressed against mine, and pulls me down and kisses me quite passionately, wow, where did that come from? Not that I mind, kissing her is amazing and I'll never get enough of that, not if I'll get a hundred years old.

"Wow", I manage to say after we pulled apart again, my knees suddenly feel like jelly and my heart is racing, "what was that for?"

"Nothing in particular", Maura shrugs, "I just like kissing you. As I told you yesterday, your kissing skills are beyond measure."

"Why thank you", I give back, I can feel that I have a goofy grin on my face, but I just can't stop it, "you're not too bad, either." She just smiles at me, then I finally unlock my car and we both get into it, on our way to Rendell's apartment a few minutes – and one more quite passionate kiss – later.

* * *

><p>An hour later, I'm watching how one of our IT guys is typing and clicking away on his computer, Rendell's laptop connected to it; Maura went back down to the morgue after we arrived at the precinct, telling me that she's got some paperwork and other stuff to do and that I should call or text her the moment anything new comes up in the case.<p>

"How long does that take?" I finally ask after watching him doing whatever it is he does in silence, getting impatient, "I told her I'd bring her the laptop in the afternoon."

"Just a little bit longer", IT-man replies, unimpressed by my impatient tone, "if you want her to have full access, I need to assign all those access privileges to the login I created for her, and that takes some time, Detective."

"Well, hurry up", I try to urge him on anyway, watching how he clicks on several little boxes on his screen while on the monitor of Rendell's laptop, the program used to access the database is being installed, "the sooner she gets this, the sooner we can work out who our guy is."

"I know about the urgency", he reassures me, briefly looking up at me before he focuses on his screen again, "and I'm working as fast as this program lets me. Why don't you go and get a coffee or something, Detective Rizzoli, and I'll page you as soon as I'm done?"

Wow, he's trying to get rid of me, and in such an unsubtle way, too; I'm not in the mood to argue with him though, so I just tell him that I'll do just that and that he better will page me the moment he's done. This time, he doesn't even look at me when he nods, still fully focused on those little boxes; still, I give him another patented impatient Rizzoli look before I finally leave, heading back to the bullpen to ask Frost how he's getting along with the list – if he managed to get hold of the few people on it, some lives might have been saved after all.

While I make my way back to the bullpen, I can't help it, but just have to study the people I pass; I'm painfully aware of the fact that any of them might be our guy, and I hate how this makes me feel, how it makes me incapable of trusting anyone of them but Maura, Frost, Korsak and Cavanaugh, I just hope we manage to get this guy soon before I get too paranoid – or before he finishes the list, since I'm still not all too keen on finding out what he might have in mind for me then. I might be safe now, as long as he's not done, but once he finished, anything goes, and the last thing I need is just another sociopath out to kill me.

For a moment, I ask myself again why it's always me; then I force those thoughts aside and tell myself that Maura was right, that it's not my fault, and that I shouldn't waste my energies on pondering that, especially not now when we have something much more important to do. After all, I can still worry about that after we found out who he is and put him behind bars – and I really, really hope we'll do that soon, before any more people end up as victims of his painfully obvious insanity.


	15. Chapter 15

"I managed to get hold of three of our potential victims", Frost lets me know after I informed him about Rendell's willingness to help us out and about the fact that her laptop right now is being prepared for just that, "two of the guys and the woman. The third one didn't answer his phone, a patrol car is on the way to his home right now to check on him and warn him personally."

"Let's hope he's at home and just too lazy to pick up the phone", I mutter to myself, and Frost nods before he tells me that the guy technically should be available, he's been out of work ever since he became the prime suspect in the case I've been working on back then.

"What about the others?" I then want to know, "are they leaving town?"

"At least they said they would", Frost shrugs, "and if they're smart, they'll do it and not just say it. I didn't give them too many details, so they won't end up blabbing to some newspaper after we pretty much managed to keep this under wraps, but I made it clear to them that it might be better for their health if they leave town for a while."

"Good job, Frost", I compliment him, and he smiles happily, man, am I really that stingy with honouring the good job he does here? Before I can ponder that further though, he asks how Rendell is doing, and I shrug, not sure what he expects to hear, I mean, the poor woman was stabbed twice and he was there when we found her, saw how bad it was.

"Surprisingly well I guess, considering the circumstance", I answer his question anyway instead of making some sort of snarky remark, "and even though she was all dopey from the painkillers they gave her, she wanted to start working on what we need from her ASAP, she's quite keen on seeing that guy arrested."

"No surprise, after how he attacked her", Korsak comments from his desk, finally looking up from his monitor where he surely has been watching his "cute" videos on YouTube again, "I'd want the guy dead if that had happened to me."

"I'm actually kinda surprised he attacked her", Frost ponders out loud, "it doesn't fit to the rest of his targets, she never had anything to do with you before all of this."

"He wants to finish his list", I shrug, "no matter what. She got in the way, so he tried to get rid of her… if he really did try to kill her, I mean, he did use her to make her give me his warped message."

"Stabbing someone twice, in the chest and in the stomach, looks like attempted murder to me", Korsak points out, "if you guys hadn't found her, she would have died, don't forget that."

"But why leave a message with her and then endanger her like that?" Frost asks him, I wonder why they are bringing this up just now, didn't they have time to discuss that when Maura and I weren't around?

"He sent her pretty much the same message with the third head", Korsak replies, "maybe he wasn't sure she'd make it. Or he didn't want to hurt her that bad and only realized afterwards what he had done."

"Maybe he went kinda crazy when he was attacking her", I mutter, even though there's no use in dwelling on such speculations, "and got out of control. Wouldn't be the first time, and we all agreed by now that he's not exactly sane."

"Well, if our little idea works out, we can ask him personally soon", Frost smirks, "if Rendell's capable of getting us the information we need."

"I'm quite sure she'll give her best", I tell him, "as I said, she's keen on getting him behind bars, as well, after what he did to her." He just nods, then I sit down at my desk, figuring that I might as well get some paperwork done while I wait for IT-man to call me and tell me that the laptop is all ready to go; during the last few days, I've kinda been neglecting that, so there's more than enough for me to busy myself with.

Even though the paperwork is one of the things I despise the most about my job, I manage to concentrate on it enough to get my mind off waiting for the tech guy to page me; and I even get quite much of it done until all at once, Maura says my name and startles me, and I jump in my chair before I look up at her, surprised to see it's almost lunchtime, which is most likely also the reason why she is here.

"I'm sorry for startling you", she now says, "I didn't realize you were so engrossed in your paperwork. I wanted to ask if you're up to have lunch with me?"

"Sure", I decide after a moment, "looks like IT-man isn't done yet anyway, and I'm hungry, so let's go. What are you up to?"

"The question is, what's for dessert", someone mumbles behind me before Maura can reply anything, and I turn in my chair to glare at the commenter, but all the guys in my line of sight are suddenly very, very busy with whatever they've been doing before one of them made that comment.

For a moment, I feel like just blowing up in their general direction, tell them all off; there's always been speculation about the status of the relationship between Maura and me, and by now, they wouldn't exactly be wrong with any assumptions they might make about a possible romantic thing going on between her and me, but it's none of their business, and I don't need their lewd comments, I didn't need them before Maura and me started this… thing, and even less now. Then, I feel Maura's hand on my shoulder, and her touch is enough to calm me down, I look up at her, and the expression on her face makes it obvious that all she wants is to get some lunch and none of my infamous Rizzoli Temper Tantrums; so I bite back my response and just stand up, nodding when she asks me if I'm up for Italian.

I only realize a second too late that maybe, she should have chosen another nationality when someone decides to be a smartass again, a different voice than the first commenter. "Italian food or something… else Italian, doc?"

Again, I feel like exploding, like yelling at them all, and maybe demand to know if their own sex lives are so lame that they have to make assumptions about other people's; then, Maura grabs my hand and starts pulling me towards the exit, not roughly or with a lot of strength, but with enough determination to make it clear to me that she doesn't want me to even dignify this with an answer.

"Those idiots", I grumble as soon as we are out of earshot from the bullpen, throwing an angry look at their backs over my shoulder, "don't they have anything better to do than… this?"

"Don't mind them so much", Maura advises me, giving me a calming smile, and I only notice now that she's still holding my hand, but it feels too good, so I don't pull back, Hell, let them all see it if they want to, they'll comment either way, no matter if we actually get physical with each other or not.

"They tease you with the status of our relationship because they know it pulls your levers", Maura now goes on, and for a moment, I'm not sure what she means – until it hits me, and I can't help it, but just have to smile.

"That's called 'pushing your buttons', Maura, not 'pull your lever', but you were close", I say, and she smiles at me, full of mischief, the same emotion in her voice when she replies. "I know. I also know though it amuses you if I have such linguistic mishaps."

"Wait", I give back, rising an eyebrow at her, "you just did that on purpose? To cheer me up again? How often do you do that and how often is it really a 'linguistic mishap', as you called it?"

"I won't tell", Maura smirks, and for a moment, I'm actually speechless. Wow, not only does Maura make me go "Awww" in my mind, she's also the only person in the whole wide world who can accomplish _that_. Well, except for Ma, I guess.

"Wow", I finally regain my ability to speak, "that's… kinda sneaky. I'm impressed. Also, it's kinda cute."

"I know that, too", Maura reassures me, and I can't help it, but just have to chuckle; after a moment, she laughs with me, and hearing that sweet sound helps to push the last few remains of my anger and annoyance about the idiotic guys aside, and by the time we leave the precinct together, I'm smiling again, glad that we get to have lunch together and that I have this wonderful woman here by my side.

* * *

><p>Of course, the timing of IT-man is just as bad as it can be, namely paging me while we're in the middle of lunch; figuring that now, it can as well wait another fifteen minutes, I call him and tell him that I'll pick the laptop up in half an hour, he sounds a bit peeved about that – probably because I pressured him so much to get it done quickly – but tells me it's okay, anyway, so I don't really care.<p>

"Do you want me to come along when you take the laptop to Miss Rendell?" Maura asks the second I put the phone back where it belongs; I consider this for a second, then ask her if she got done with the stuff she had been busy with in the morgue before she came upstairs to have lunch with me, moving a forkful of pasta with sauce Bolognese into my mouth while she answers me.

"With most of it, and the rest can be done once we get back from the hospital. If you want my company, of course."

"Aw, come on Sweetie, you know I do", I smile at her after swallowing, I know she doesn't like it if I talk with my mouth full; then, I notice how she's staring at me now, and my smile slowly dies as my mind starts to pick up speed, trying to figure out if I said something wrong now. I can't come up with anything though, so I just ask her what's wrong, and moments later, she smiles at me so happily and brightly that it warms my heart, seeing her smile like that is like the sun finally breaking through the clouds after days of bad weather. Oh wow, that was almost poetic, seems like Maura is awakening unknown sides of me.

"This is the first time that you earnestly addressed me with a pet name", she now explains the reason for her goofy grin, wow, and that made her so happy? If I had known it's that easy to make her smile like that, I would have done that sooner.

"I'm not counting the 'babe' from yesterday", Maura adds, still smiling from ear to ear, "because it was said in the context of remembering our LBiff-charade. But this right now was earnest."

"Well, I'm glad it made you happy", I let her know, "to be honest, I didn't even think about it, it just… happened."

"Which makes it even better", Maura informs me, "because it shows me that you are comfortable with me and the status of our relationship."

"Which we still didn't define", I remind her of that small, but not unimportant fact, and she shrugs, then smiles again, taking a sip of her water before she replies. "As I told you the morning after the first night we spent together romantically, I don't require labelling what we have, even though I have to admit, it would be easier if we did. Just like I didn't want to pressure you into admitting your attraction to me though, I don't want to pressure you about this, either."

"But you would be willing to put a label on it?" I ask, just to be on the safe side, I already took that big ass leap of faith when I just kissed her – man, I can't believe now that was just a few days ago – and I'm not in the mood yet for another one; she smiles again and shrugs, then nods, and I take in a deep breath, seems like I'll at least have to take a small leap of faith now, since obviously, Maura wants me to say it and isn't gonna say it herself.

"So", I start, watching her carefully with my Detective gaze, "we're… a couple then? You're my girlfriend…?" It's half a statement, half a question, and Maura answers in a simple, but very nice way – she just nods, then reaches over the table and grasps my hand and holds it tenderly, her thumb gently caressing the back of it, moving over the scar left there by one of Hoyt's scalpels, her voice down to a low murmur that sends shivers up and down my spine when she speaks up at last.

"Yes, Jane", she confirms, "I'm your girlfriend, and you're mine. If this label is alright with you, of course."

"It's perfect", I tell her, man, how long did I want this? From the smile on her face, I can tell that she thinks the same, and for once, I manage to throw all caution and worries about who might be watching aside and lean over the table for a quick kiss; the goofy smile which is on her face again afterwards makes me smile just as goofily, and we must look like the world's biggest idiots, just sitting there and grinning at each other, but I don't care, all I care about is her and about how I can make her smile like this more often in the future.


	16. Chapter 16

After lunch, Maura and I pick up the laptop, then make our way to the hospital to give it to Rendell; when we enter her room, this time with no doctor trying to stop us, but two officers sitting in front of it who insist on seeing our IDs, good job from those guys, she's half sitting, half lying in her bed, watching TV, looking relieved when she sees us enter.

"Detective Rizzoli, Dr. Isles", she greets us, sounding surprisingly coherent, considering how tired she was when we came here for the first time; she still must be on painkillers, there's no way in Hell they'd take her off them already, but she doesn't seem all too dopey to me.

"Miss Rendell", Maura returns the greeting, smiling at her, "how are you feeling now?"

"Not much different from the morning", she shrugs, then winces, wow, if just doing that hurts her, he really must have hurt her badly, "the painkillers still rock though, I barely feel anything."

"And that's why you just winced when you shrugged", I can't stop myself from deadpanning, and she at least has the grace to blush, then shrugs again, and I notice how she grits her teeth to hold the wince back this time – before she gestures at the laptop, then asks if we put everything she needs on it.

"I hope the tech-guy did", I shrug, handing the computer to her; she puts it on her lap, then opens it and boots it, shaking her head when I ask if she doesn't want to hook it up to the electrical socket nearby.

"No need to, the battery holds up to ten hours", she then lets me know, "that should be more than enough to get you the information you need, the security of your database isn't really top-notch, you know."

"Which might come in handy now", I comment, then get out one of my cards and hand it to her, telling her to call me the moment she's got the data we need from her.

"Will do", she promises, already focusing on the computer and the program our IT guy installed on it; Maura takes the time to tell her that she shouldn't overdo herself, but from the way she nods absent-mindedly, I can tell she didn't even really listen.

"Come on, Maura", I thus say, "let's go and give her some privacy so she can focus. Thanks again, Miss Rendell." She just nods again, and I can't help it, but just have to smirk; she reminds of Maura when she's totally absorbed by some particularly difficult autopsy, she reacts just the same way then.

Nodding as well, Maura gives our hacker one last worried look, clearly concerned about how this might affect her healing process; she doesn't make another comment though, but just grabs my hand, and we step back outside together, where I stop to instruct the officers once more that they shouldn't let anyone else in and that they should get Miss Rendell anything she might need, both of them nodding and reassuring me they'd do just that in reply.

"Good", I smirk at them, and they both nod again; Maura gives them a slightly kinder smile, then we head to the parking lot again and get into my car there, but I don't start the engine immediately, instead, I look at Maura – at my girlfriend, wow, how good it feels to think that – and immediately, she asks me if there's something on my mind.

"If Rendell succeeds", I try to voice those thoughts, "we'll know who he is. If he used his own login. Then this will be over."

"Yes, indeed", Maura nods, "and you'll have yet another solved case underneath your belt."

"The two of us", I correct her, but to my surprise, she shakes her head, then shrugs at the questioning look I give her.

"I didn't do much which might lead to the perpetrator's arrest", she points out to me, "my autopsy only gave us general information, but no leads on who the killer is. Once you find and arrest him, it will be the achievement of Detective Frost, Miss Rendell and you."

"I couldn't do it without you though", I reply without thinking twice about it, normally, I'd never admit something like that to anyone, but with her, it's different – hey, she's my girlfriend after all. Still can't get over how good it feels to think that.

"Having you in my life makes it all easier for me, too", Maura reassures me, reaching over to grasp my hand again; this is not enough for me though, not this time, and so I lean towards her for a kiss, and it quickly deepens, man, I can't wait to get home tonight, this confirmation of our relationship needs to be celebrated properly.

"Hey", I thus say, a new thought coming to my mind, "why don't we go out for fancy dinner tonight? Just you and me?"

"Oh, I'd love to", Maura reassures me, but from the tone of her voice and the look on her face, I can already tell what will come next, "but it'd be very rude towards your mother, she offered to make chicken for dinner tonight and I already accepted…"

"Hmm", I let out in reply, "well, maybe that's not so bad, I mean… now that we put a label on it, maybe…" I trail off, not sure how to voice this, and thankfully, Maura gets my idea, since she grasps my hand again, sounding just excited enough to let me notice when she finishes for me. "Maybe we should make it official?"

"Uh-huh", I make some sort of agreeing noise, "I mean, Ma will find out anyway sooner or later, and she better hears it from us than from someone at the precinct." From Frost, to be precise, seeing how he couldn't keep his mouth shut when Korsak was around.

"Indeed", Maura agrees with me, not surprising, "and to be honest, I think she's been expecting it just as much as Barry and Vince. She actually made a comment about it to me once?"

"She did?" I demand to know, incredulous, wow, I can't believe this, I mean, she was giving me all those looks whenever Maura and I touched or looked at each other, but I never would have thought she'd go and ask her about it like that.

"Just once", Maura shrugs, obviously, it's not a big deal for her, "it was something along the lines of how she'd like you to date a doctor, and then she gave me this very meaningful look. At least I interpreted it that way, but you know I'm not top-notch about such situations, so I might be entirely wrong."

"I doubt you are", I grumble, still slightly pissed at Ma, "I mean, she's probably given up on the idea about me giving her grandkids any time soon, right now, I think she'll be happy if she just knows I have someone in my life."

"She'd be happy for you", Maura gently corrects, squeezing my hand again, "she's not doing this to annoy you, Jane, even though I understand it might seem like this some times."

"Most of the time", I make it my turn to correct, then give her a lopsided smirk, relieved that she reacted to enthusiastically to my tentative suggestion.

"So you're okay with telling her?" I ask again, just to make sure, "you do know that the moment she's alone afterwards, the whole Rizzoli family and her closest friends will be called and told, right?"

"I don't mind", she shrugs, "in fact, I'd like them all to know that now, the wonderful and fascinating person named Jane Rizzoli is taken. By me."

"Why thank you", I can't help it, but just have to grin goofily at her again; she smiles back at me just as wide, then we kiss once more before I finally start the engine and drive back to the precinct, well aware of the work that is waiting there for both of us.

* * *

><p>Once back at the precinct, Maura and I have to part ways, since she goes back down the morgue while I head for the bullpen; on the way there though, my sweet tooth suddenly kicks in, and quite loudly and demanding, too, so I give in after a moment of eternal struggle and turn back again. I'll just have to make sure I won't get any of the pastries nasty Stanley sneezed on, preferably one of those he didn't even get close to, I just hope Ma is still on her shift there and not Stanley himself.<p>

"Jane!" Ma hollers the moment I enter the cafeteria, well, that answers this particular question; she waves enthusiastically at me, and I wave back, not nearly as energetically as she does, man, I hate it when she greets me like that, it's bad enough that she works here, she doesn't need to make such a scene every time I come here. No surprise I prefer to eat somewhere else.

Before I go and face her, I help myself to some coffee, I hope she made it, the stuff Stanley brews up and labels as "coffee" is just gross; she beams at me when I finally step up to the counter, and I take my time studying the various treats and cakes, finally pointing to a slice of cherry pie and asking Ma if Stanley was anywhere near it.

"Not that I remember, no", she reassures me, already removing it from the display case and putting it on a plate, then adding a fork, her eyes sparkling when she looks up at me again, uh-oh, this hardly ever means something good.

"What are your plans for tomorrow evening?" she wants to know, and I shrug, then cautiously ask why she wants to know, only to be forced into holding back a groan when she answers my question. "Well, Mrs Mangini's son Mike is in town, you know, he's a lawyer, and I was wondering if I should invite him to—"

"No", I cut her off before she can finish, "not interested."

"But you haven't even met him yet", Ma protests, I should have known this wouldn't be handled so easily, "why won't you give him a chance?"

"I'm not interested", I tell her, I hope she'll stop now or I'll have to drag her back into the kitchen and let her know about Maura and me right here, I actually was planning to tell her when Maura's around, as well, at dinner tonight. I don't think she'll freak, she's always been quite open-minded about such stuff, but I don't want her hollering her joy back there, where about twenty cops and detectives can hear her.

"Why not?" she keeps prodding, oh Jesus, can't she just accept it? "He's a nice man Jane, and good looking, too."

I grit my teeth, trying to figure out what would be worse, namely accepting now and then later telling her that it was just a ruse to make her shut up, when I let her know about Maura and me – or telling her right now so she'll stop this.

"His law firm is small, but successful", she goes on, I swear, this woman doesn't have the phrase "giving up" in her vocabulary, "he's making good money and he could take good care of you. And he's handsome!"

"Come on", I grumble, making my decision and moving around the counter so I can take her arm and drag her into the kitchen with me; she reacts with a surprised gasp, but comes along willingly enough, and I wait until the door fell close behind us before I speak up again, I don't need anyone out there to hear, not yet.

"Look", I start, trying to find the right words to keep her from yelling, either with joy or anger, suddenly, I'm not so sure anymore, "I'm not interested, okay? I'm… not available anymore."

"What?" she cries out, ouch, that nearly made my ears ring, "when did that happen? And who is it? Please tell me it's not another detective, that hardly ever works out, I know from Mrs Bertani, her son got together with a female officer and it didn't even last a year."

"It's not a detective", I sigh, this is gonna be harder than I thought, my confidence that she'll be okay with it shrinking further and further with each second, no matter what Maura told me earlier in the car, "and not an officer either." I fall silent, and she just looks at me, waiting for me to tell her who it is, wow, I'm surprised she's not asking, maybe she's already having an idea and just wants me to say it.

"It's Maura", I finally do just that, okay, that was rather blunt and not smooth at all, but there's no need to beat around the bush I guess. Almost a full minute ticks by in silence, and just as I start to worry about her reaction, almost expecting her to freak out now, she suddenly nods, smiling slightly, sounding absurdly proud when she speaks up at last.

"So you finally made up your mind, huh? About time! My Janie's dating a doctor, this is great!" she gushes, and before I can ask her what she meant with "About time", she's pulled me into a tight embrace; I return it a bit awkwardly, I was hoping she'd be fine with it, but I didn't really expect her to react like this.

"You be good to that girl, you hear", she strictly tells me after she pulled back from the hug, "she's such a nice woman, it'd be a shame if it went wrong."

"Uh-huh", I let out, not very smart, but on the other hand, her very positive reaction kinda overwhelmed me, "I will Ma, I promise… But now I have to get back to work."

"Don't forget your cake!" she calls after me as I leave the kitchen, and I grab both the plate with said cake and the coffee before I finally head for the bullpen, suddenly feeling as if a great weight was taken off my shoulders – almost all important people in my life know about Maura and me now, and all of them have taken it easily. I fully realize how lucky I am while I sit down and check my paperwork while eating my cake, and it makes me smile; both Frost and Korsak look at me with raised eyebrows, but none of them says a word, but that's fine, I just wanna sit here and bask in my happiness for a while, I never would have thought I'd feel that good some day. I really have to thank Maura for that later tonight.


	17. Chapter 17

After I finished my cake and coffee, I focus fully on the paperwork for almost an hour; and then, my phone rings, I don't recognize the number, so I give my best to sound friendly when I answer it with the usual "Rizzoli".

"Detective", a familiar female voice responds, but I can't put my finger at first on who this is, thankfully, she tells me before I have to make a fool of myself by asking, "it's me, Sharon Rendell. I got what you want."

"Great", I tell her earnestly, "so what do you have for me?"

"There've been several logins accessing the files of your victims before the murders started, and afterwards", she let's me know, "I got them all here, wait… BFrost?"

"That's my partner", I tell her, "no danger there. What else?" Wow, I can't believe how fast my heart is beating all at once as I realize how close we might be now to cracking this case.

"JRizzoli, which is you", she answers, man, why is she telling me this, I want some useful information, "and another one that means nothing to me, WSears. First two letters in caps, no spaces."

Along with my heartbeat, now my brain speeds up, too, but the login means nothing to me, and I realize with painful clarity that there are so many officers, lab technician and other staff in the precinct I have no idea about.

"Thanks", I tell Rendell anyway, "I'll look into it."

"The third one", she gives back before I can say goodbye, "that's him, right?"

"I don't know", I answer truthfully, "but I'll have it checked right now. Thank you very much, Miss Rendell, you really helped a lot."

"I'm glad", she lets me know in reply, "so now, you guys won't try to get my ass into prison, right?"

"You got my word on it", I reassure her, then tell her to take care and to get better before I say goodbye and hang up; I take the time to text the detective responsible for the case of Rendell hacking our database and tell him to back off, quickly explaining it to him when he asks for a reason, luckily, he accepts that and reassures me no further steps will be taken.

Once I made sure that no one will be after Rendell – huh, maybe I should do that before I promise that to anyone the next time, what if it hadn't worked? – I get up and make my way to Frost's desk; he's focused on his own stack of paperwork, listening to something via small earplugs, his head bobbing slightly, then he jumps, startled, when I say his name loud enough to be heard over the music he's been enjoying.

"Listening to music on the job, tsk tsk", I scold him, not fully serious though; he just shrugs, then smirks, removing the earplugs and giving me a questioning look.

"If I tell you a login", I start, "can you find out who's behind it?"

"Not officially", he replies with a slightly mischievous twinkle in his eyes, "but for you, of course, Jane. What's the login name?"

"WSears", I let him know, "the W and the S in caps, no spaces." He nods in reply, then focuses on his computer again; impatiently, I remain next to him, watching his fingers move over the keyboard with their usual stunning speed – I'm average about typing myself, and watching how fast he can to do that always kinda impresses me, even though of course, I'd never tell him that.

After a short while, he frowns, biting his lower lip in concentration while he tries some weird combination of one of the F buttons and another one I can't see properly from where I'm standing; moments later, he nods, satisfied, and goes on typing, and five minutes after I asked, he looks up at me, unmistakable pride in his voice when he tells me he got the info I wanted.

"Warren Sears", he goes on, not making me ask for it, by now, he knows I hate that, "he's been working here for one and a half years now, age twenty-five. He's a lab technician."

Already when he said the man's first name, my gut clenched up, even though I wasn't sure why; and when he adds that the guy is a lab tech, I can practically feel how my heart plummets, falling all the way to my feet.

"_Warren", Maura says in surprise, looking at the young lab technician who just entered, it's kinda adorable how he blushes when he notices us, he clearly was quite caught up in that stack of papers he's holding, "you're still here, I see. Doing overtime?" _

"Oh my God", I manage to say, then turn without another word and hurry off, knowing I need to get down into the morgue; the rational side of me tells me that this is an overreaction, that he won't know we found out about him and that Maura isn't in any danger, but there are moments when I don't listen to that side of me, and the thought of that bastard hurting Maura makes it one of those moments.

"Jane!" I hear Frost calling out, sounding startled, but I ignore him, and seconds later, I'm already out the door, I don't bother to wait for the elevator, but run down the stairway instead, almost more jumping than actually running, taking two steps at a time, the thought of stumbling and falling briefly crosses my mind, but that's not important now, I have to get to Maura and get her out of there before God knows what happens.

* * *

><p>As if the state I'm in wasn't bad enough already, the first thing I notice when I reach the large glass front of the morgue is the fact that Sears is there with Maura, looking at some papers with her; they both look up when I enter, and I hope I managed to compose myself enough so he won't notice now that I know.<p>

"Maura", I start, God, I just hope I sound normal enough, "sorry for disturbing you, but I need you to come with me. Do you have a minute?"

I notice the way Sears looks at me, but I really, really hope he's just annoyed about the interruption and didn't figure out that I know, man, why did he have to be here now, of all times?

"Oh, sure, Jane", Maura now tells me, I don't know if she picked something up after all, but she looks mildly concerned when my eyes meet hers, "just let me put this—"

She never gets to finish her sentence, all at once, Sears starts moving, shockingly quick, one arm wrapping around her and jerking her close to him, oh God no, and the other hand shoots out and grabs a scalpel from the tray next to the autopsy table, oh please no, please don't let him hurt her, he brings the scalpel up and presses it against her throat, and within the blink of an eye, she goes stiff and her eyes go wide.

"You know, don't you", Sears accuses, looking at me, holding Maura so close to himself that it's impossible to get proper aim on him for a shot, but my hand falls to the butt of my gun automatically anyway. "You know it was me."

"Yes", I confirm, lying to him now will only make him more dangerous, and I can't risk it to get Maura hurt, I just can't, God why can't I come up with something?

"I did it for you", he almost snaps before I have the chance to add anything else, "don't you understand? They were scum, they deserved to die, I did it to make you happy!"

"I know", I reassure him, maybe, if I play along, he'll let go of Maura and I can end this, man, am I glad that unlike Maura, I can lie, "and I… appreciate it, really, I do, but I won't like it if you hurt Maura. Just let go of her and we can talk about this in peace, alright?"

"I know your little tricks", he spits in reply, dammit, seems like he did his homework, "and it won't work. And I know you're with her! You don't want me! I did all this for you, and you still don't want me!"

"Just put the scalpel down", I try reasoning again, even though the dreadful sense that it won't work is filling me, "then we'll talk about whom I want and sort everything out. Okay?"

"I've loved you since I first saw you", he sniffles as an answer, Jesus, how did someone that deranged get into here? Did no one notice how much of a nutcase this man is?

"After you got Hoyt", he goes on, "I was so fascinated by you. So strong, and so beautiful, you're the only woman I ever wanted, the only woman I ever loved…" His grip on Maura tightens, and she briefly closes her eyes, then opens them again, her gaze focused on me, the fear I can see in her eyes making my heart clench up again.

"But I can't have you, I know that", he continues, sniffling again, it would be pathetic if he didn't have that scalpel to Maura's throat, "I know that… I love you with all my heart and you don't want me…"

"Listen", I give back, my mind's running on high speed as I try to figure out how to end this without letting Maura get hurt, but he won't even let me finish my sentence, his eyes narrow, and he shakes his head, his voice now sad when he interrupts me.

"There's no time for listening", he lets me know, "you just should have let me finish. Just four more and I would have been done, then you would have liked me… But you interrupted me, you interrupted the process, you contaminated it and now you'll never like me! Now you like her instead, this… this _bitch_!"

And suddenly, the scalpel slashes and Maura jerks back and gasps and there's blood, oh God he cut her she's bleeding oh God no please no, he drops the scalpel and Maura slumps forward and to her knees and suddenly the gun is in my hand and I fire once, twice, his body twitches when the bullets hit and he goes down.

Somehow, I manage to get the gun back into the holster while I run to Maura's side and kneel down next to her, she's gasping, her eyes wide and full of pain, one hand clutching at her throat, I can't see how bad he got her, but there's blood, so much blood, oh Jesus please no, please don't take her away from me.

I hear someone say "No" over and over again, and after a few seconds, I realize it's my own voice; I briefly close my eyes, try to get a grip on myself, then I focus on her again, and her eyes meet mine and it hurts me so much to see that she's in so much pain.

"Sweetie, let me look", I make myself say, giving my best to sound gentle and to hide how freaked out I am, but I know she'll be able to tell anyway, she knows me well enough by now, "let me have a look, come on Maura, Sweetie, let me look…" I hear voices behind me, but I don't care who it is or what they want, all I can focus on is her, and I gently take her wrist and pull her hand away from her throat, and then the relief nearly makes me faint when I see that, even though there's a lot of blood, he didn't cut as deep as I at first thought.

"You'll be okay", I tell her, tearing off part of her lab coat and pressing it down on the wound to still the bleeding, and the way she whimpers in pain at the pressure makes my heart clench up again, "don't worry, Sweetie, you'll be okay, he hurt you but it's not that bad, you'll be okay, really, I promise…"

Her hand starts moving and blindly gropes for a few seconds, then finds my free one and grasps it, and I hold it tight, still not taking my eyes off of her face, making sure to keep the eye contact while I fully ignore the people behind me, ignore how they frantically speak to each other and to me and want to know what happened.

"Hold on there", I keep talking to Maura, the slash might not be as deep as I feared at first, but she's still losing blood at an alarming rate, and I don't want her to faint on me, "an ambulance is on the way, you'll be fine… Hold on, for me, okay? I love you, hold on, you'll be okay…" Collective gasps go off behind me, and I fully realize what I just said, but I don't care, I just want her to be okay, and finally, the ambulance is there and they shoo me away so they can take care of her and all I can do is stand there and watch, my heart still hammering in my chest when they finally load her into the ambulance car and rush off.

"Come on", I hear Frost next to me, his hand taking my arm and only now I realize there's blood on my hands, her blood, oh God, "let's go and follow them, I know where they are taking her…"

Now feeling numb, I just nod and let him lead me out of the morgue and to the garage; he doesn't even bother to ask if I'm ready to drive, he just gets into the driver's seat and I ride shotgun, and while he drives, I can't stop thinking of Maura, she just has to be okay. Please, let her be okay.


	18. Chapter 18

By the time we arrive at the hospital, Maura has already been taken to the ER, information the nurse doesn't want to give me at first, but she surrenders when I flash my badge at her; she takes us to one of the waiting rooms and we sit down there, I feel awfully tired, but there's no way in Hell I'll leave until I know that Maura will be okay.

"She'll be fine", Frost now tells me, as if he read my mind, and reaches out to put a calming hand o m shoulder, it doesn't really calm me down, but it's good to know he's here with me, "don't worry, they'll fix her just fine."

"That makes it sound as if she's a cyborg", I mutter, and then I flash back to the moment when we laid in her bed, that night when I went to her house to get away from my intruding mother, during the time Hoyt was after me again; I asked her if she'd tell me if she were a cyborg, and she said no.

"I should have done something", I tell Frost, pushing those memories aside and shaking my head to myself, "I never should have let him hurt her…"

"There was nothing you could have done", Frost keeps trying to calm me down, "I was there, remember? With the way he was holding her, there was no way you could have shot him without endangering or even hurting Maura."

"Damn psychopath", I mumble as an answer, I know he's right, well, my head knows, but my heart insists on blaming myself, and I just can't forget the wide-eyed look of shock and pain on Maura's face when the scalpel cut into her throat. If she hadn't pulled her head back the way she did when he started cutting her…

My cell phone rings and distracts me from my thoughts, and I flinch slightly in my seat; Frost looks a bit startled as well, then his expression changes to a curious one while I get out my phone and look at it, not surprised to see that Cavanaugh is calling – by now, he surely was told what happened down in the morgue, I just hope he won't go ballistic on me now.

"Rizzoli", I take the call, then hold my breath as I wait to see how he'll sound, what he'll say; to my surprise, there's just concern in his voice, no anger or irritation, when he replies.

"It's me, Cavanaugh", he tells me something I already know, "where are you?"

"At the hospital, Sir", I inform him, giving my best to keep my voice steady, he doesn't need to notice how shaken up I'm feeling, "with Detective Frost."

"Are there any news about Dr Isles yet?" he wants to know, and I tell him no and that she's still in the ER; he's quiet for a while after that, but just when I finally want to ask if he's still there, he speaks up again. "And you? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine", I reassure him, wow, he's still sounding quite worried, "I shot him right after he hurt Maura and she… went down."

"I know", Cavanaugh tells me, "I've been given quite a detailed report. By several people. You caused yet another sensation in the precinct, Rizzoli." Now he sounds a bit irritated, but that's nothing new, after all, that's the way he usually sounds when he talks to any of us and it actually calms me down a bit that the concern is gone from his voice, I can handle him better if he's like that.

"Sorry", I deadpan, "next time some psychopath is in love with me, I'll try to make him have his nervous breakdown somewhere else."

He just lets out some snorting noise in reply, then tells me to call him as soon as I know anything about Maura and that I should take the rest of the day off; I reassure him I'll do just that, then hang up and put the phone back where it belongs, feeling a bit calmer now.

"What did he want?" Frost demands to know next to me, and I shrug before I look at him, not able to keep the slightly sarcastic tone out of my voice when I answer. "He scolded me for causing yet another sensation, as he put it. And he asked about Maura and if I'm okay."

"You'll end up on the front pages again", Frost smirks in reply, obviously trying to lighten up the mood a bit while we wait for the doctor to finally get done and come to us to tell us that Maura will indeed be fine, "but let's hope they won't cite what you said to Maura just before the ambulance came."

"What I said…", I start, then I realize what he's talking about, and he has the audacity to chuckle when my eyes widen.

"Oh my God", I blurt, "I told her I love her, didn't I?" Frost nods and smirks, his smirk widening when I ask how many people were there to hear.

"Oh, I'm not sure, I didn't count", he teases, hrmph, I hate him for how much he's enjoying this, "ten I guess, or maybe twelve."

"Oh God", I groan, shaking my head, "this means that by now, everyone in the precinct knows."

"So, they know now", Frost shrugs, finally stopping his teasing and sounding more sincere again, "sooner or later, they would have found out anyway. You just made sure it happened sooner than later."

"Is this supposed to calm me down?" I want to know, irritated; he shrugs again, then nods and smirks at me, and I just roll my eyes at him before I settle back into the chair and look up at the ceiling, silently counting the minutes as I wait for the doctor to get done at last and tell me that Maura will be okay.

* * *

><p>It takes almost an hour until finally, the door opens and a doctor steps into the room; he looks at me and asks if I'm Detective Jane Rizzoli, and I nod, my heart beating up to my throat now as I wait for him to tell me how Maura is doing.<p>

"I'm Dr Wiggin", he informs me, "responsible for Dr Isles. We just finished treatment and I'm glad to tell you that her condition is stable now. She asked to see you." He falls silent, and I give him an impatient look after a few seconds, not able to keep that same emotion out of my voice when I reply. "So? Can I see her then?"

"Of course, just follow me, please", Wiggin gives back, man, why did he wait for me to ask him before he told me that? Douchebag. But at least I can see Maura, so I tell Frost to wait here before I get up and follow the doc, down the hallway outside and round a corner, finally stopping in front of a door with the number twelve on it.

"Here", he states something quite obvious, "but please don't stay longer than twenty minutes, and please try to avoid tiring Dr Isles or upsetting her."

"Sure", I mutter, then push down the handle and enter the room; to my surprise, Maura's sitting upright in bed, a bandage around her throat and a needle in her arm, a thin tube leading from the needle to a plastic bag filled with blood, dangling from a metal stand next to her bed.

The moment my eyes meet hers, my knees turn to jelly and my heart starts hammering in my chest again; even though the doctor said I shouldn't tire her out, I can't stop myself from rushing over to the bed and pulling her into a hug, somehow managing to keep in mind that I should avoid poking the needle in her arm, or the tube dangling from it.

"I'm so glad you're okay", I tell her, unable to keep the tremble out of my voice, "when he cut you, I thought I lost you…"

"It was quite the unnerving experience", Maura replies, returning the embrace with her free arm, "but fortunately, my body acted on reflex and kept him from cutting too deep, so not too much damage was done."

"Let's hope you'll never have to experience something like that again", I mumble, finally pulling back from the hug, but grasping her hand and holding it tenderly, I still can't believe how lucky she was and that she didn't get hurt worse.

"What about Sears?" Maura now wants to know, it surprises me how well she seems to be, neither in pain, nor shook up about what happened; I shrug, then tell her I shot him twice and that he's dead, adding "Good riddance", after a moment of thought.

Maura smiles slightly in response to that, then nods; I return the smile, squeezing her hand gently while I ask her how she's feeling and if she's in pain, a slightly mischief twinkle entering her eyes when she answers. "No pain at all. Miss Rendell was right, they do have very good painkillers here."

"Speaking of her, I'll have to thank her", I muse out loud in reply to that, "after all, it was her work that made me figure out who our Sandman is… or was."

"I'm sure she'll be glad to hear that", Maura smiles, "but now, let's enjoy the time we have together without thinking of other women." This makes me smile as well, and I nod before I lean down to kiss her; afterwards, we just sit in silence for a while, and I ponder once more how lucky we both were – after all, if Maura hadn't reacted so fast, who knows how deep his cut would have gone, and I shudder when I think of the horrible possibilities.

"I'm so glad you're gonna okay", I break the silence, making her smile slightly again, "and once you can go back home, we should both take a few days off… Just relax and stuff, you know?"

"And stuff?" Maura echoes, a mischief twinkle in her eyes, wow, she really is feeling good, considering she's been held at knifepoint not all too long ago, "what kind of… stuff would that be?"

"Oh, you know", I reply, giving my best to sound light-hearted – if she can handle this so well, I should be able to do the same, right, "going for lunch or dinner, to the movies, cuddles, make wild monkey love…"

"Jane", Maura giggles, shaking her head; if the motion hurts her, she doesn't let it show, "what a way to describe our… times of intimacy."

"Yeah, because times of intimacy is so much better", I tease her, smirking at her, and by now, sounding light-hearted isn't as much acting anymore as it had been a few minutes ago, "really, Maura? It sounds like something from a cheesy romance novel."

"I don't read cheesy romance novels, and you know that", Maura replies, managing to sound fully serious; we look at each other for half a minute in silence, then we both start laughing, and suddenly, all my guilt and bad feelings about Maura getting hurt vanish into thin air as I realize fully that everything turned out fine and that soon, she'll be okay again.

Finally, we both calm down again enough to be capable of proper talk, and Maura squeezes my hand, smiling at me; she pulls me closer for yet another kiss, a warm, loving sparkle in her eyes when she looks at me again, and I realize where that is coming from when she speaks up again, her voice now low and warm, filled with so much love that it makes my heart clench up – man, this sounds tacky, but I never would have thought anyone would sound like that when they're talking to me.

"You know, Jane, when I was there on the ground, bleeding and in pain, the only thing that kept me from fainting right on the spot was you", Maura lets me know, "and how you were talking to me. Your voice, as sexy as it can be, can also be very soothing and calming."

"Soothing and calming?" I repeat, barely able to believe my ears, "I was close to panicking back then! I think I never sounded as freaked out as I did after he cut you and you laid there, bleeding all over the place."

"All over the place is an exaggeration", Maura points out, ever the logical one, even if she's in a hospital bed after a madman cut her throat, "that only would have happened if he'd managed to cut the artery in my throat, and if he had done that, I would be dead by now."

"Uh-huh", I mutter, not wanting to think of that gruesome scenario; she smiles, squeezes my hand again and makes me focus on her once more, my heart performing a daring leap in my chest when our eyes meet.

"There was one thing you said that especially helped to calm me and with holding on", Maura lets me know, I wonder where this will lead now, "and I realized that I didn't get the chance to say it back to you, so I'll do it now, alright?"

"Alright", I mumble, it touches me how she makes sure I'm fine with this, still well aware of how talking about emotions and feelings freaks me out at times, but not this time, not with her.

"I love you too, Jane", she murmurs, her voice almost down to a whisper; and then she pulls me closer for another kiss, and once again, all is well as I feel and taste her lips on mine, God I love her so much, I know I'll never let her go again, not if we live to be a hundred.


	19. Chapter 19

Author's Note: And here we go with the epilogue of the story. I hope you had as much fun with reading it as I had while writing it, and that you enjoyed yourself :) As always, feedback is highly appreciated.

* * *

><p>Just as we planned, both Maura and me took a few days off after she'd recovered enough to be released from the hospital; to her immense relief, the doctors did a great job with stitching her up, and the scar the wound left on her throat is barely noticeable, just a thin pink line which will fade to white over time and soon won't be visible to anyone who doesn't know it's there.<p>

At first, Cavanaugh tried to talk us out of taking that holiday, trying to make us believe that the precinct would explode or something if we'd both be gone; finally, he gave in though and allowed it, and almost immediately afterwards, Maura started planning our holiday, suggesting walks in the park and general relaxing activities, arguing that this'll be the first time I'll be at home on holidays in years and not because of getting hurt.

Of course, even though several days passed between the attack and Maura being allowed to leave the hospital and to come back to the precinct, our revealed relationship still had been the number one gossip topic at the BPD; several people were dull enough to ask if we really are a couple or if the love I'd been talking about when she was down on the ground and bleeding had been strictly platonic, until Maura got fed up with it – quite surprising, I have to say, since she's always been the more reasonable one – and kissed me quite passionately right in the middle of the bullpen, shutting everyone up.

If they still talk behind our backs now, I don't really care, especially not now, during our days off; it's the morning of the third day now, and I've been the first one to wake up this morning, in Maura's bedroom, she's still slumbering soundly right next to me, her head resting on my shoulder, one of her arms draped across my stomach.

Not wanting to wake her up yet, I study her features as she slumbers peacefully; she really did handle the whole incident with Sears surprisingly well, she only had nightmares once since she came back home, and of course I was there then, holding her and calming her down, just like she did for me whenever nightmares of Hoyt plagued me.

I still find it hard to believe how easy we all got out of this in the end; just as I thought, my bullets killed Sears, ending his crazy quest for my love and affection; every now and then, I wonder what he would have told me, had he lived, how he would have argued that killing men I hadn't been able to put behind bars would make me love him in the end.

"What are you thinking about?" Maura distracts me from my thoughts, seriously, it's uncanny how she wakes up and is capable of proper communication and coherent thought within seconds, I always need at least ten minutes to get that far right after waking up.

"Sears", I reply honestly, "I was wondering how his warped brain was working to make him think I'd love him after he killed a bunch of people."

"We'll never find out", Maura shrugs, "and even though it's a pity another life had to be ended before this case could be declared as solved, it's also a good thing – just imagine what would have happened if he'd met Hoyt and teamed up with him."

"Ugh", is all I wanna say to that, I don't even wanna ponder that for another second; Maura smiles at me, then props herself up on one elbow so she can kiss me, a soft, lingering kiss that blows all thoughts of Hoyt and Sears out of my mind.

"No more thinking about crazy murderers", she almost orders me, "we're still on holiday, and we should enjoy it as best as we can."

"I already know how", I reassure her, my voice down to a low growl as it often happens when I have certain feelings of arousal; with a knowing look in her eyes, Maura nods and kisses me again, much more passionate this time, and not all too long after that, I not only forget about Hoyt and Sears, but about almost everything else, as well – all I can think about is Maura and how much I love her, how much she means to me and the lengths I'm willing to go to protect her and to make her happy.

I never would've thought I could have such strong feelings for anybody, but she manages to bring out that side in me, the mushy, romantic Jane I never, ever showed to anyone else before; I don't mind showing this with her though, I love her and I know that she loves me, and in the end, that's all that counts.

End.


End file.
